Risks and benefits of air taxis as perceived in Germany

Abstract

In a telephone survey on the acceptance of civilian drones in Germany conducted at the end of 2022 a certain part of questions was dedicated to air taxis explicitly. While the attitude towards civilian drones tended to be slightly more positive than in the preceding study, in the again nationwide representative study attitudes concerning air taxis were revealed to be relatively balanced, with a slight negative tendency. Inferential statistical analyses showed factors such as age, gender, active experience with drones, and interest in environmental protection to be significantly associated with the attitudes towards both, civilian drones and air taxis. According to prior findings on the relevance of noise concerns for drone acceptance in general, the current study asked for some noise related information, revealing subjective noise sensitivity and general noise annoyance being associated with the acceptance of civilian drones as well as air taxis. Evaluating information from answers to free format questions about air taxis, this contribution reveals reasons why in Germany—although the contributing factors are the same—the general attitude towards air taxis is less positive compared to civil drones, and what role noise considerations might play.