Abstract
The extension of the current urban transportation system utilising the third dimension by air taxi (AT) operations represents a potential solution for the congestion of metropolitan areas. A major asset for AT operations is the connection to existing airports enabling the access to multiple other transportation systems. This paper develops an analytical model for AT operations and their capacity impact on airports, exemplary for Hamburg airport. The model is developed, based on the results of a fast time simulation (FTS) considering multiple aspects, such as vehicle configuration and touchdown and lift-off areas (TLOF). Collectively, three integration methods were analysed, each of them impacting the conventional air traffic differently. The results show that an integration using the runway-system is not possible with five ATs per hour. Further methods allow an integration of up to 20 air taxis per hour. Additionally, an energy consumption analysis of the ATs is conducted. Finally, proposals are given for integrating ATs at an airport and further strategies to extend the analytical model. Through this work, a model to calculate and predict an AT’s influence on the airside capacity of an airport is designed. This is an important step for the practical implementation of AT operations at airports.
Highlights
CO2 emissions, Figure 8 reveals that the common usage of the runway system leads to an increase of the aircraft’s CO2 emissions compared to the baseline scenario (BS) scenario
Evaluating all simulation runs, the greatest impact was observed on the conventional air traffic side due to the RWY integration
Integration into conventional runway systems is only recommended for low-traffic hours or at small single runway airports, since the results showed high effects of air taxi (AT) on the conventional traffic delay for a high traffic airport
Summary
Academic Editors: Marcella Samà, Zhouchun Huang and Alexei Sharpanskykh. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Urban transportation systems are facing the challenge of congestion [1]. One reason is the steady growth of the population in cities. According to [2], two thirds of the world population will live in urban areas until 2050. This increased population density leads to a higher traffic volume and to congestion on the streets, especially during rush hours
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