An Econometric Analysis of the Correlation between Dwell Time and Consumption Behavior in Airports

The civil aviation industry is passing through an inflection point characterized by the decoupling of passenger traffic recovery from real commercial revenues. This paper examines the “Golden Hour” phenomenon, where the discretionary time interval between security screening and boarding is taken into account, thus understanding the key factors of non-aeronautical revenues. The “free dwell time” is introduced and its critical role in the modern airport economic management system has been investigated, because of the vital role of non-aeronautical revenues have become. The literature materials is synthesized in order to highlight the nonlinear relationship between the waiting time, passenger stress and type of spending. The limitations of traditional monitoring methods, like surveys, are compared with positioning technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The research methodology combines an econometric approach of analyzing granular trajectory data with behavioral modeling, drawing from case studies from major international airports to rate sensor accuracy and revenue elasticity. One of the main results indicate a revenue elasticity of 0.8 for the food and beverage section and 0.6 for the retail segment in direct correlation to the dwell time. At the same time, the existence of important time windows, with peaks identified in the 9:00 and 14:00-16:00 time slots with a maximum consumption predilection is considered. The contribution of the paper consists in proposing an integrated analysis framework, composed and analysed in MATLAB, that correlates terminal design, passenger psychological profile and operational efficiency to maximize commercial yield.