Maximizing non-aeronautical revenues in airport terminals using gate assignment and passenger behaviour modelling

Airports must ensure that their operations can efficiently adapt to the emerging needs considering both the passenger experience and their economic viability. One way to achieve this is by optimizing the airport operations, aiming to maximize revenue levels considering operational objectives and passenger requirements inside the airport. This study presents an original mixed-integer linear programming model (MILP), which combines the gate assignment problem with passenger behaviour modelling. First, a survey was conducted to collect relevant information to model passenger behaviour and the purchases conducted in a terminal, leading to the estimation of discrete choice models that quantify the probability that a passenger makes purchases of certain levels at the terminal according to their flight type (departure, arrival or transfer). Then, the proposed MILP model assigns gates which would expectedly increase the airport non-aeronautical revenues at the terminal airport by matching flights and passenger gate categories to the most profitable gates, considering the proximity to the retail area, the walking distance needed to get to a gate in a specified time-horizon and the operational constraints of the airport. The application to the Lisbon Airport case study showed a potential increase of 8%–12.2% in revenues corresponding to 1732.7€ and 2967.3€ in half-an-hour time slots.