Airports are businesses that sell retail space (airside and landside), runway slots, aircraft parking, landside car parking etc and they generally calculate their charges on SBR (Scheduled Busy Rates) - this is how many passengers they must process an hour (although not all costs are based on this).

Try and fly an aircraft into LHR at 7am on a Monday morning and it will probably cost you more than 11am on a Sunday! Why? Monday at 7am is busier than Sunday at 11am!

Airports do not really care if your airline is like Emirates and has nine check in counters or is some unheard of airline that just has one counter (obviously commercial department prefer the former). If your check in experience is bad that is your problem with your airline! Try another!

They care more about getting you through security and into duty free as they normally gain a commission on any spend you make.

ICAO sets out SBRs that airports should aim for in processing pasengers but I will not divulge these. In general, better airports far exceed these and many "crappier" airports fail to.