Abstract
The worldwide increasing population density in major urban centres poses great challenges for transportation systems. Air taxi services could be a solution to this growing problem by bringing the existing transportation system to the three dimensional space. This paper analyzes the challenges and requirements of developing a vertiport intended for the use of air taxis at Cologne Bonn Airport. This research was conducted with the information available at the time of writing, for which a basis scenario is defined for the Cologne Bonn Airport where important aspects of an air taxi service are determined such as passenger demand and possible vehicles. The main aspects analysed were the requirements on the vertiport infrastructure and its location, as well as the requirements on passenger processing. For the defined basis scenario, results show that the preferential locations to develop a vertiport at Cologne Bonn Airport are the roof top levels of parking garages P2 and P3. Furthermore, it is shown that given the estimated passenger demand, a very high utilization factor of the defined infrastructure is to be expected. This paper provides a starting point for the development of an air taxi service at Cologne Bonn Airport. Further research is needed in key issues such as the financial aspects of an air taxi service, its integration into the current operating scenario of the Cologne Bonn Airport and the approval process for an air taxi service and the vertiport itself.
Highlights
A considerable number of air taxi projects are under development worldwide, with individual developers pursuing different concepts and strategies
The daily traffic volume was calculated by looking at the 30th busiest day of the year, which corresponds to the method of dimensioning airport infrastructure recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) [8]
The modal split including air taxi services will highly vary for different local transportation systems, a 5% share of trips by air taxi services lies within a reasonable order of magnitude, compared with estimates of other literature [3, 9]
Summary
A considerable number of air taxi projects are under development worldwide, with individual developers pursuing different concepts and strategies. The integration of this new technology into the existing infrastructure and public transport network is increasingly being discussed in society and politics. Most of the vehicles in development focus on environmental friendly propulsion methods (generally either electric or hybrid propulsion), for which the introduction of this technology promises to help unburden the current traffic network, and to do it in an environmental friendly way without further deteriorating the climate. In the greater Cologne Bonn area and the entire airport region, congestion of the ground-based transport infrastructure can be observed every day, especially in the road network [1]. The urgent need to improve the local public transport network requires solutions for the growing demand on individual and flexible intermodal transport connections, especially in the surroundings of international airports such as the Cologne Bonn Airport
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