Comparing betas of an airport and a shop chain

Which would you expect to have the higher beta: an airport operator or a retailer? Explain.

Typically the retailer. An airport is usually a regulated, near-monopoly infrastructure asset with long-lived contracted revenue, making its cash flows utility-like and only moderately sensitive to the cycle. A retailer, especially a discretionary one, sees sales and margins swing with consumer spending and has operating leverage; caveat that a grocery retailer can have a low beta and that airport traffic does fall in recessions.