Airport classification criteria based on passenger characteristics and terminal size

This paper introduces classification criteria for airports that focus on the comparability of passenger terminal facilities. The variables used to define the criteria include terminal size in terms of number of gates, passenger characteristics in terms of international/domestic passenger volumes and transfer passenger volume. The study utilizes passenger data collected from the T-100 and airport origin/destination-survey databases of the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Cluster analysis is used as the technique to identify similar airport groups using passenger volumes as multiple variables. Finally, a set of criteria is defined, to differentiate airports based on the variables used.