Once passengers step through the security scanner a “golden hour” begins. Most are relatively prosperous; all are briefly at loose ends. Airport retailers, knowing the flight schedules and shopping habits of travellers according to their boarding cards, are primed to receive them. Unlike high-street shops, airport outlets know when their customers will show up, notes Muriel Zingraff-Shariff, until recently Heathrow’s retail director. They can plan for an influx of brandy-sipping Nigerians or of Chinese women in search of moisturisers. That makes airports “a data paradise”
