Abstract for: Exploring Airports’ Landside Congestion Impacts on the dynamic of Passengers Satisfaction

International airports may suffer landside congestion when air traffic grows. This is likely to generate an impact on the service quality provided to passengers. Due to the high complexity of the airport system and very often the lack of data available, few studies adopt a systemic perspective in investigating the dynamic of passengers’ satisfaction. The airport service quality management literature identify six main critical areas on which airport managers should focus on. In this preliminary research, a System Dynamics model was built to support airport managers to outline alternative policies to improve passengers’ satisfaction. The analysis was carried out in an Italian international airport. It focused, in particular, on how security controls waiting time and airport terminal cleanliness impact on passengers’ satisfaction. Although only two critical areas were investigated in this preliminary stage, simulation results portrayed counterintuitive behaviours. After a literature review on airport service quality management, main drawbacks are highlighted and the contribution of the System Dynamics methodology is made explicit. In the second part of the paper, a brief introduction of the investigated international Italian airport is provided. Then the System Dynamics model built is presented and validated simulation results with airport managers are shown. Finally, main contributions of this preliminary study and further research are also discussed.