Lotte Duty Free temporarily closes Gimpo Airport store
Lotte Duty Free will temporarily close its Gimpo International Airport store starting from March 12
Lotte Duty Free has today announced that it will temporarily close its Gimpo International Airport store starting from March 12, due to a sharp drop in flights and customers at the airport.
The retailer said it has yet to decide on the store reopening date. In a press release, Lotte explained that as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent international measures by different countries, there was a sharp drop in flights and travellers at Gimpo Airport.
Gimpo Airport operates only short-haul round-trip routes to Japan, China and Taiwan. In January, the number of flights at the airport averaged 24 per day, however, this has decreased drastically to one to two flights a day as a result of international measures between Korea and Japan due to the COVID-19 outbreak. If there are no passengers, even these few flights can be cancelled.
Under such circumstances, duty-free shops within Gimpo Airport are almost all closed. Small and medium-sized brands that operate stores at Lotte Duty Free's Gimpo Airport are also asking to be closed. After reviewing the situation and talking to the Korea Airports Corporation, Lotte made the decision to temporarily shut down its Gimpo Airport store.
Aside from that, Lotte Duty Free is shortening the business hours of five of its downtown stores nationwide by one more hour. This means its store will be open from 9.30am to 5.30pm.
