Duty Free Shop airport | INV | Inverness airport

United Kingdom UK Scotland, N Ireland, Wales, England

INV | Inverness airport

UK-EU exit process: The regulations and information stated below will not change until the British exit process has been confirmed.

Duty Free shopping in the United Kingdom (UK) varies according to the airport and your route. One of the major enquiries is “do they sell Duty Free cigarettes going to”. The answer is yes and no. Yes if you are leaving for a non-EU Territory, but no if you are departing from this airport for places like Spain, Portugal, Greece or any other European Union Member. The same rule applies for alcohol.

Duty Free cigarettes, tobaccos or cigars are not sold in the arrival baggage area of any UK airport, neither Duty-paid or Duty-Free. So make sure you buy at your departure airport and not on arrival in The UK. Liquor prices on arrival are all Tax-paid and the bottles are usually 75cl, not litres. Note the various bottle sizes and prices, because this can tend to distort price comparison.

British regional airport shopping is extensive, mainly in the departure lounges, but airports like East Midlands, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool or Southend, do not generally service long-haul routes terminating outside the EU. They cater for Charter flights, low-cost airlines going to EU Countries or connecting flights to hubs like Paris or Amsterdam.

For your departure from this airport, there are two rules: for EU Countries everything you buy is Tax-paid, for all other destinations you can buy goods at Duty Free and Tax Free prices. On departure, even to the EU, you might see goods offered as “Tax Free”. This is because these products, (like perfumes, sunglasses, watches, gifts etc.), only have Sales Tax (VAT or GSM) levied on them and not the special Excise Duties levied on tobaccos or liquors.

Many airport retailers absorb the VAT element for intra-EU travellers and just sell these products to everyone at the same price. But, they cannot make a similar discount for tobaccos or wines & spirits because British taxes are too high for them to absorb the tax. This is why you will see two different prices in these regional airports: “for those travelling to the EU” and “for passengers going to a non-EU destination”.

Some airline and airport retailers are yet to publish their online duty free prices and catalogues, others have now started incorporating online pre-order facilities.

We will publish the details for this airport as soon as they are available and where relevant to this airport, publish the airline in-flight price list, enabling you to make a comparison of the available products and prices.

If no local sites are available, we will provide links to a site where you can best check prices.