Cash Handling for Airport Duty-Free & Travel Retail in Abu Dhabi: Multi-Currency Counters, Coin Counters & Counterfeit Protection
An airport shop takes money from the whole world. In one shift a duty-free till can see euros, dollars, pounds, dirhams, and a dozen other currencies, in both notes and coins, from travellers passing through fast. Staff have to count it, value it, catch counterfeits, and hand over clean totals at the end of every shift - and the shifts run around the clock.
Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi (formerly Abu Dhabi International) handles more than 20 million passengers a year, and its Terminal A, opened in late 2023, is one of the largest in the region. Duty-free and travel-retail brands there serve a constant flow of international travellers - which means a constant flow of foreign notes and coins across the counter. The same is true at Dubai and the other UAE airports.
Here is how we handled it for one of the biggest operators there.
Fitting out one airport’s travel retail, store by store
Lagardère Travel Retail Abu Dhabi runs brand stores in the duty-free area of the new Abu Dhabi airport - Hermès, Longchamp, Hugo Boss, Ferragamo, Victoria’s Secret, LEGO, and Fortnum & Mason among them.
We supplied the whole operation: 70 Cassida 3200 counterfeit detectors for the retail outlets, 6 Cassida Xpecto multi-currency counters, 8 Cassida Coinmaster coin counters, and 3 Cassida Neo Max for the back office. With the Cassida 3200 alone, staff have caught many counterfeit euro and US dollar notes right at the till, before they reached the drawer.
Their biggest concern was not the machines but the people. Airport staff work in shifts around the clock, so training and updates have to be constant. We trained both the shop-floor teams and the back-office staff on how to use the machines and how to spot counterfeit notes, and we keep that going as staff change.
What makes airport cash different
A duty-free counter is one of the most mixed cash environments there is. A few things set it apart:
Many currencies at once. Notes and coins arrive from everywhere, so the till has to value a mixed stack, not just AED.
Coins pile up fast. Foreign coins and small change build up through the day; a coin counter saves hours of hand-sorting.
Shifts run 24/7. Every shift closes and hands over, so each count has to be fast, accurate, and documented.
High counterfeit exposure. Lots of high-value foreign notes come from travellers passing through once, which raises the risk of a fake slipping in.
Counterfeit protection across every shift
At an airport, a counterfeit note is easy to take and hard to trace - the traveller is gone in minutes. Checking notes by eye does not catch good fakes on a busy shift. A detector or a counter with built-in UV, magnetic, and infrared checks screens every note as it is taken, so a fake euro or dollar is stopped at the till. At Lagardère, the Cassida 3200 has caught many counterfeit notes exactly this way.
The setup we recommend for airport retail
Screen at the till, count and value fast, handle coins, and close each shift with a documented total.
At each retail till - Cassida 3200 counterfeit detector: it checks each note the moment it is taken, so a fake is caught at the counter. This is the machine that has stopped many counterfeit euro and dollar notes at Lagardère.
For multi-currency counting - Cassida Xpecto: it reads and values a mixed stack of 20-plus currencies and checks every note for fakes, so staff are not valuing foreign cash by hand.
For notes and coins - Cassida Coinmaster: it counts and sorts the coins that pile up at a duty-free till, turning an hour of hand-sorting into minutes.
In the back office - Cassida Neo Max: it brings each shift’s takings together, checks them, and prints a documented total for a clean handover between shifts.
Practical points for airport cash handling
Screen notes at the till. With travellers passing through once, the till is the only place you can refuse a fake. Catch it there, not at the bank.
Give every shift the same routine. A fast, documented count at each handover keeps shifts comparable and shortages traceable.
All Cassida machines read the new polymer AED notes. As the Central Bank rolls out polymer AED notes, every Cassida machine reads all versions, old and new - no false rejects on a real note during a busy shift.
Clean the machines often. Airport cash is high-volume and dirty. Dust and grime build up inside and cause miscounts and jams, so the machines need regular cleaning, which our service center handles.
Frequently asked questions
Why do airport shops need a multi-currency counter? Because travellers pay in many currencies. Valuing a mixed stack by hand is slow and error-prone; a multi-currency counter values it in seconds and checks each note for fakes.
Do we really need a coin counter? At a duty-free till, yes. Foreign coins and change pile up fast, and a coin counter turns hand-sorting into a few minutes at each handover.
How do we keep counts consistent across shifts? Each shift counts on the same machines and prints a documented total at handover, so head office compares like-for-like and can trace any shortage to a shift.
Why travel-retail operators switch to Cassida
Many operators first buy counters on the open market or from an online marketplace, then have no one to call when a machine fails mid-shift or staff need retraining. They switch to Cassida because we run the region’s only specialized service center for cash machines, in Al Quoz, Dubai, and we train staff on every install - so a machine that goes down is fixed or replaced fast, and new shift staff are never left guessing.
About Cassida Middle East
Cassida Middle East is the only branch of Cassida USA in the region. We operate the UAE’s only service center focused exclusively on cash-handling equipment - banknote counters, sorters, and counterfeit detectors - located in Al Quoz, Dubai. We have been here since 2013 and have served more than 4,000 businesses across the country - including aviation and travel names such as Emirates, dnata, Emirates Flight Catering, Alpha Flight Services, Air Arabia, and Expo 2020. Every machine has one year of warranty as standard; order directly on the Cassida website and you get an extra year on top - two years in total - plus training when you buy and both on-site and yearly service plans.
Written by Mr. Muhammad Saeed, Service Engineer, Cassida Middle East - 9 years of experience with cash-counting machines.
Message us on WhatsApp, email, or call to book a demo at our Dubai showroom.