Colm McLoughlin, managing director of Dubai Duty Free, was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the annual Frontier Awards in Cannes last week, widely regarded as the ‘Oscars' of the duty-free industry.
This is the second lifetime achievement award given to any professional.
The event was held on the sidelines of the Tax Free World Association exhibition.
Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman of Emirates Group, said: "I would like to extend my heartiest congratulation to Colm Mc-Loughlin on winning this award. It is truly a wonderful feat and something that we are all proud of."
Accepting the award in Cannes from Frontier magazine's editor, Deborah Sidey, McLoughlin said: "This is overwhelming, I am thankful to Frontier for this great honour. I would like to dedicate this award to Shaikh Ahmad and to all duty-free staff."
The Frontier Awards evening, which was attended by 500 guests, had another surprise in store for Dubai Duty Free when it was named the airport retailer of the year for a record fourth time.
The operation was also highly commended in the best marketing campaign of the year by a retailer .
Colm McLoughlin began his retail career with Woolworths in London in the early 1960s.
Returning to his native Ireland in 1969, he joined Shannon Airport Duty Free and went on to become general manager.
In 1983 he was a member of the consultancy team from AerRianta International contracted to launch the new duty-free operation at Dubai International Airport.
