A choice model of security check channel for airline passengers considering heterogeneity in airport terminal

Having a better understanding of passenger behavior during security check is crucial to improve the efficiency of security check in airport terminal. The main aim of this study is to further the knowledge on how security channel choices are made and how different factors affects these choices. Decision making during security check implies different choices, of which one of the most important selections is the security channel. This paper investigates the effects of environmental (distance and queue length of channels) and passengers' own factors (age, gender and luggage) on security channel choice. A sample of 530 passengers from the surveillance video is obtained and a mixed logit model (ML) is calibrated using these data. The model indicates that only distance, queue length, age and luggage can significantly affect the selection of security channel and the parameters of these factors are no longer fixed but obey normal distribution. Moreover, the results show that the parameters of distance and queue length have significant random distributions, which proves that decision making is influenced by a high degree of passenger heterogeneity. The findings of this study can be used to improve the queuing simulation models and the accuracy of their results in future research, which can assist in designing and managing the security check in the terminal system.