Air taxi skyport location problem with single-allocation choice-constrained elastic demand for airport access

Abstract

Witnessing the accelerated commercialization efforts for air taxi services in across metropolitan cities, our research focuses on infrastructure planning of skyports. We consider design of skyport locations for air taxis accessing airports, where we present the skyport location problem as a modified single-allocation p-hub median location problem integrating choice-constrained user mode choice behavior. Our approach focuses on two alternative objectives i.e., maximizing air taxi ridership and maximizing air taxi revenue. The proposed models in the study incorporate trade-offs between trip length and trip cost based on mode choice behavior of travelers to determine optimal choices of skyports in a city. We examine the sensitivity of skyport locations based on two objectives, three air taxi pricing strategies, and varying transfer times at skyports. A case study of New York City is conducted considering a network of 149 taxi zones and 3 airports with over 20 million for-hire-vehicles trip data to the airports to discuss insights around the choice of skyport locations in the city, and demand allocation to different skyports under various parameter settings. Results suggest that a minimum of 9 skyports located between Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn can adequately accommodate the airport access travel needs and are sufficiently stable against transfer time increases. Findings from this study can help air taxi providers strategize infrastructure design options and investment decisions based on skyport location choices.