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Airports & aeronautical infrastructure

A major airport is a regulated monopoly gateway with a shopping mall attached: two tills, the aeronautical and the commercial, on one captive-traffic site. Choose a real airport below and walk through the airfield, the business model and a working returns model.

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In focus · —
Example

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Drag the sliders to see what flows through the airport, and which till it earns from.

83.9m pax
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Annual passengers
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Flights / hour
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Revenue / hour
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aero + commercial tills
Revenue p.a.
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to the owner

01

What it is & how it works

02

How it earns

Model A · the universal two-till model

Aeronautical + commercial

Every airport earns from two tills. The aeronautical till charges airlines to land, park and process passengers; because it is a near-monopoly it is almost always regulated, and lower-margin. The commercial till (retail, food & beverage, car parking, property and advertising) is largely unregulated and far higher-margin. Lifting commercial income per passenger is the core value-creation lever; the regulatory regime then decides how much of it the owner keeps versus hands back to the airlines.

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03

What it costs, and how it's financed

Revenue → operating costs → EBITDAMargin —

The capital stack
Who bears the costallocation

    History & ownership · key milestones
      04

      Cash flows & returns

      Build & operating

      m
      m
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      %

      Revenue regime & tax

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      m
      %
      ×

      Financing & hold

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      y
      Unlevered IRR
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      asset / project return
      Levered IRR
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      return to equity
      Equity multiple
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      MOIC over hold
      Payback
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      project, undiscounted
      Cash-flow profile, equity■ invested   ■ returned
      Show the year-by-year schedule
      05

      What drives the return

        See also the standalone live airport simulation, a generic airport with animated traffic and the same two-till revenue → EBITDA → returns build.