The appropriate scale of US airport retail activities

Terminal-based retail has been sufficiently successful that many airport operators are considering enlarging their facilities in order to increase revenues. On the basis of data on the retail sales and rental revenues for 75 of the US's most important passenger airports, we demonstrate the significant impact of passenger demography on the volume and nature of airport retail sales. A method is outlined for combining information on the demography of passenger flows with construction costs in order to evaluate appropriate capital investments for terminal retail expansions.