Reasonable and efficient gate assignment can improve airport operation efficiency and passenger satisfaction. Firstly, a gate assignment optimization model was established based with the objective of the shortest passenger walking time and aircraft taxiing time, and the constraint of aircraft centralized parking for the same airline was added. Then, a tabu search algorithm was designed, and taking the Shanghai Pudong International Airport as a typical airport for an example analysis, it was found that the passenger transit time, aircraft taxi-in time and taxi-out time were reduced by 5. 04% , 25. 28% and 6. 36% respectively, and the weight sensitivity analysis was carried out. It is recommended that the weight of passenger transit time should not exceed 0. 7. Finally, a simulation experiment was established based on Flexsim. The results show that the actual aircraft taxi-in time, taxi-out time, and the number of taxi conflicts are reduced. The number of taxiing system service flights increases by 3. 30% under the acceptable delay level, and the maximum taxiing delay time of arrival and departure decreases by 9. 09% and 2. 94% , respectively.