L’Oréal and Avolta Aim for Airport Refills, but Brands Remain Unnamed

At a duty-free counter, it is easy to find a full bottle, but far less common to find the option to refill one already bought. L’Oréal Travel Retail and travel-retail operator Avolta are trying to narrow that familiar gap for passengers.

The companies have signed a joint Sustainability-Linked Business Plan, tying their commercial work to measurable sustainability targets. It sets out an expansion of refill formats across international travel hubs, the development of circular solutions and efforts to reduce the logistics footprint.

The clearest target concerns fragrance: by 2030, refill solutions are intended to account for 10% of L’Oréal Travel Retail’s key fragrance categories. At the same time, the partners plan to reduce the impact of transport, including through lower-emission modes and better truck utilisation.

For shoppers, this does not yet mean that the nearest airport will offer a universal station for refilling a favourite bottle. The announcement names no brands, fragrances, countries, individual shops, prices or launch dates. It should therefore be read as an infrastructure plan rather than the launch of a service available today.

The agreement was presented at the TFWA World Exhibition & Conference 2026 in Cannes. The plan also includes corporate-responsibility training modules for in-store consultants, a detail that matters for refills: the format works only when shoppers can be clearly told about bottle compatibility, how to purchase and whether a refill is available.

For the fragrance market, this is a notable signal. Refills are moving beyond the remit of a single brand and into the wider conversation about how travel itself is organised: the assortment, logistics and the shop experience. Actual availability can be judged only once L’Oréal Travel Retail and Avolta disclose the first brands and points of sale.