New Multi objective models for the gate assignment problem

•Gate Assignment Problem (GAP) observed at airports, is important decision making problems.•Previously, GAP is studied by considering objectives related to passenger walking distance and ground operations.•New multi-objective models to investigate the possibility of increasing the shopping revenues of an airport operator are offered.•Performance of models varies in terms of total PWD and number of passengers at gates near airport shops.

Assigning aircrafts to the available gates is an important decision problem that airport professionals face every day. However, this problem is generally studied by considering objectives related to the passenger walking distance and/or the ground operations. This paper investigates the possibility of increasing the shopping revenues of an airport operator through new multi-objective models. The overall aim of the proposed multi-objective models is both to assign passengers to specific gates near shopping facilities and to assign flights to gates such that the total passenger walking distance is minimized. Results of different test problems revealed that, the performance of the models varies in terms of total passenger walking distance and number of passengers assigned to the gates near airport shops.