With the need to increase total revenues, airports have begun to use commercial retail. A well-designed airport may provide great service to clients and consumers and increase their satisfaction and in turn their spending behaviours. Since there is suggestive evidence that there might be cultural associations of white, purple or black with different emotional loadings to these colours across cultures, the present study investigated passengers’ preferences for architectural design characteristics of an airport in a new cultural setting. Discrete choice modelling was used to measure the passengers’ preferences for 10 interior design characteristics of the passenger terminal using 3D renderings. Data on 435 passengers were collected at Mehrabad International Airport, which also included passengers’ emotions. Passengers in the terminal hall preferred a curved and transparent ceiling, material in warm colours, cool lighting, with low width and low height, greenery and without any decorations. When compared to other studies, it may well be that passenger preferences for lighting and certain colour schemes reflect geographical or cultural differences. For other interior design characteristics, preferences relating to the shape of the ceiling and the amount of daylight, as well as the presence of greenery, may well be reflections of passengers’ restorative needs.