Why Classic Buying Is Taking Off at Airports

When London stylist Bella Hignett went on a women’ escape to Portugal final April, she knew certainly one of her shoppers was out there for a secondhand Louis Vuitton Neverfull tote. But the final place she anticipated to search out one — within the actual measurement and material she was after — was at Humberto Delgado Airport,
in Lisbon.

“I used to be there early, so I had a go searching and was excited to return throughout it,” Hignett says. To the delight of her consumer, she boarded her flight again to England with one further designer bag in tow. Higher nonetheless? She paid simply $540 for a chunk that retails for $2,030 new.

Whereas it’s de rigueur to search out luxurious shops at airports, the Preloved boutique that Hignett found is on the forefront of secondhand purchasing in terminals.

The Lisbon airport service provider is simply over a yr previous and already successful, says Cláudia Carvalho, a spokesperson for Portugal Obligation Free, which operates the store. Its ever-rotating choice typically contains authenticated items from Bottega Veneta, Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Saint Laurent, Carvalho says, with costs beginning at $400 and rising to the 5 figures for extremely coveted finds — together with Birkin and Kelly luggage from Hermès.

The demand is a mirrored image of the booming marketplace for secondhand luxurious, which business watchers say grew to $50 billion in 2023. In the meantime, the general airport retail market is estimated to hit $65 billion by 2030. These forces appear destined to converge as shoppers proceed to demand high-quality, timeless items — but in addition a extra accessible value level and fewer environmental influence.

“Airports are high-traffic hubs with numerous world audiences, so they provide the proper setting for pre-loved luxurious to flourish,” says Diana Verde Nieto, cofounder of sustainable-luxury consultancy Optimistic Luxurious.

The primary huge airport to embrace the idea was Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau Worldwide, with the 2021 opening of LXR, a boutique specializing in pre-owned luggage. As we speak, vacationers can discover luxurious secondhand outlets in quite a few European locations, together with Copenhagen, Zurich, and Helsinki, Finland. In New York, LaGuardia Airport just lately added a Revolve boutique.

“The choice is at all times altering,” says Heidi Köpple, an government at Zurich Airport, of the shop Pre-Liked Luxurious. “Now every go to to the airport turns into a treasure hunt.”

That’s actually the phrase from Aruba, the place Queen Beatrix Worldwide debuted the ReLux Assortment boutique in September, with an oft-changing assortment of about 50 purses, cross-body luggage, and totes from labels together with Gucci and Louis Vuitton. “Most of our items have been discontinued by the posh manufacturers and have turn out to be classics on vacationers’ want lists,” says Lizah Jansen, a spokesperson for the retailer Avolta, which operates the concession. Gross sales, she notes, are already properly above projections.

A model of this story first appeared within the February 2025 subject of Journey + Leisure underneath the headline “Good As New.”