Air Taxi Service Research Articles

Optimal Vertiport Locations for Air Taxi Services in Seoul Metropolitan Area

Optimal Vertiport Locations for Air Taxi Services in Seoul Metropolitan Area

Assessing automated air-taxis for urban mobility

This paper explores the feasibility and potential implications of automated air-taxis as a new mode of urban transport. By applying flight simulation and operations research, we investigate different questions regarding travel time, travel costs, and transport sustainability. As practical application, we consider the transportation service between the city and the airport, as well as on-demand air-taxi services within the city of Vienna. We compare the air-taxis with gasoline taxis and e-taxis, as they serve analogous transportation needs and cater to a similar clientele. In our effort to assess the feasibility of air-taxis, we aim to answer crucial questions that will influence the future of urban transportation. Our study examines how efficient air-taxis are in reducing travel time and explores their cost dynamics, addressing the affordability for passengers and their value of travel time savings. Additionally, we investigate their environmental impact by looking into energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Through a rigorous analysis of empirical data and simulation outcomes, we aim to provide a comprehensive perspective that informs policy decisions and guides the evolution of urban transportation networks in the years to come.

Assessing Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing for Urban Air Taxi Services: Key Parameters and Future Transportation Impact

Urban air mobility (UAM) enabled by electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft presents an innovative transportation system for mega-cities. An analysis of the techno-economic feasibility of eVTOL air taxis can provide insights into the development and potential impacts of this emerging mobility solution. This study examines eVTOL configurations and proposes a conceptual model for eVTOL air taxi services. A generic cost–revenue model is developed to evaluate the economic feasibility using the rate of return-on-investment approach. Two critical parameters are identified—maximum voyage and price per kilometer. The modeling analysis shows that eVTOL air taxis can achieve a positive rate of return given realistic assumptions on the critical parameters. Reductions in operating costs and increases in maximum voyage range improve financial viability. With technological advancement, eVTOL air taxis are expected to transform urban transportation by increasing capacity and flexibility. The techno-economic analysis provides useful implications for urban planning and policy regarding this innovative mobility mode.

A city-centric approach to estimate and evaluate global Urban Air Mobility demand

AbstractUrban Air Mobility is expected to effectively complement the existing transportation system by providing fast and safe travel options, contributing to decarbonization, and providing benefits to citizens and communities. A preliminary estimate of the potential global demand for UAM, the associated aircraft movements, and the required vehicles is essential for the UAM industry for their long-term planning, but also of interest to other stakeholders, such as governments and transportation planners, to develop appropriate strategies and actions to implement UAM. This paper proposes a city-centric forecasting methodology that provides preliminary estimates of the potential global UAM demand for intra-city air taxi services for 990 cities worldwide. By summing all city-specific results, an estimate of the global UAM demand is obtained. By varying the parameters of the UAM system, the impact of ticket price and vertiport density on UAM demand is shown. Considering low ticket prices and high vertiport densities, possible market development scenarios show that there is a market potential for UAM in over 200 cities worldwide by 2050. The study highlights the significant impact of low ticket prices and the need for high vertiport densities to drive UAM demand. This emphasises the need for careful optimization of system components to minimise costs and increase the quality of UAM services.

Infrastructural and operational availability for air taxi operations at German aerodromes

According to Flightpath 2050, door-to-door travel times of less than four hours are aspired for journeys within Europe. To accomplish this goal, on-demand air mobility (ODAM) can improve the conventional means of transportation with short travel times and comfort gains. This paper outlines a methodology for analyzing the availability of German aerodromes for air taxi operations. Analyses are based on the usage of hybrid-electric fixed-wing aircraft under visual flight rules (VFR) for ODAM. This future use-case is applied for the evaluation of infrastructural availability (quality) and operational availability in Germany. An aerodrome database and METAR weather database are developed and evaluated for the availability analyses. The main research finding is the availability of German aerodromes for small fixed-wing aircraft (according to EASA CS-23) operation under VFR for ODAM. The lack of suitable infrastructure for air taxi services (e.g., terminals, paved runways) at many small airfields limits the availability of the service. Furthermore, unsuitable weather conditions reduce operational availability, especially in winter, due to lack of visibility, e.g., snowfall. Current ODAM research has assumed continuous availability, causing an overestimation of availability. This paper provides a holistic approach in which the current state of aerodrome infrastructure and operational constraints are considered by the example of German aerodromes. Minimal infrastructure needed for this use-case is determined, main weather parameters causing operational constraints are detected and possibilities for increasing operational availability at aerodromes are revealed.

Passenger Air Taxi Services: An Assessment of the Current European Union Rules on Consumer Protection for Passengers

The Paris Olympics and Paralympics are scheduled to take place between 26 July and 8 September 2024, whereby electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft are anticipated to take to the skies to offer a new mobility solution to spectators of the Games. This will allow paying members of the public to move between different points within the Paris region akin to an on-demand taxi service, but through the air; passenger air taxi services (PATS). These passengers, as consumers, will have certain rights and duties under European Union law. To determine the level of protection afforded to these air passengers, a full assessment of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 is required. As the revision of the Regulation is currently on the European Commission’s agenda, it is also important to consider its revision in light of PATS, whereby new technology, emerging business practices, changing customer behaviour and societal expectations for the level of legal protection of PATS users must be considered. This article will, therefore, assess the current version of the Regulation, in light of the interpretation from the European Court, to see whether it applies to PATS and, if so, whether it is suitable or if specific amendments need to be added to the planned revised Regulation.

Capacitated vertiport and charging station location-allocation problem for air taxi operations with battery and fleet dispatching considerations: a case study of New York city

Set to begin operations in the coming years, air taxi is an emerging ride-sharing aviation service that plans to commute millions of customers in metropolitan cities every day. However, existing literature has not holistically investigated the impact of the various strategic, tactical, and operations decisions pertaining to air taxi services (ATS). This research adopts a simulation-based framework to address the capacitated infrastructure location and demand allocation problems associated with ATS. Specifically, we determine the following decisions: (i) location and size of operating facilities and charging stations (strategic), (ii) air taxi fleet required to serve the expected demand at a specified service level (strategic), (iii) threshold minimum charge required for efficient air taxi operations (tactical), and (iv) real-time allocation of customer demand (operational). The proposed approach identifies the infrastructure locations using a clustering algorithm, and subsequently addresses the capacitated location-allocation problem for ATS by employing a simulation-based model. To test the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we consider a case study of New York City. We leverage the estimated air taxi demand and evaluate the proposed model by considering the weighted sum of fleet utilization and customer waiting time.

Analyzing critical success factors for the implementation of air-taxi services for public transportation

PurposeCompanies are adopting innovative methods for responsiveness and efficiency in the public transport sector. The implementation of air-taxi services (ATS) in the transport sector is a move in this direction. Air taxis have a two-pronged advantage as they can reduce travel times by avoiding traffic congestion and have the potential to reduce carbon footprint compared to traditional modes of public transportation. Many companies worldwide are developing and testing ATS for practical applications. However, many factors may play a significant role in adopting ATS in the transport sector. This paper attempts to unearth such critical success factors (CSFs) and establish the interrelationships between these factors.Design/methodology/approachFifteen CSFs were identified by systematically reviewing the literature and taking experts' input. An integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique, Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory-Analytic Network Process (DEMATEL-ANP [DANP]) was used to envisage the causal relationships between the identified CSF.FindingsThe results reveal that Govt Regulations (GOR), Skilled Workforce (SKF) and Conductive Research Environment (CRE) are the most influential factors that impact the adoption of ATS in the transport sector.Practical implicationsThe research implications of these findings will help practitioners and policymakers effectively implement ATS in the public transportation sector.Originality/valueThis is the first kind of study that identifies and explores the different CSFs for ATS implementation in public transportation. The CSFs are evaluated with the help of a framework built with inputs from logistics experts. The study recognizes the CSFs for ATS implementation and provides a foundation for future research and smooth adoption of ATS.

Wind dynamic and energy-efficiency path planning for unmanned aerial vehicles in the lower-level airspace and urban air mobility context

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been extensively used in urban environments for logistics, parcel delivery and surveillance, and the development of air taxi services. Given the dynamic nature of urban air mobility in terms of decision-making time limit, wind dynamics and other external factors, one should consider their safe and efficient operations in an urban context. Therefore, we propose an energy-efficient path-planning model for UAVs under large and complex urban environments and wind dynamics. The proposed method adopted Voronoi Diagram to decompose the complex urban environment into a simplified network model, given the presence of no-fly zones and restricted areas as obstacles. One could obtain the feasible initial path by solving the network model using the Dijkstra shortest path algorithm concerning the distance matrix. Given the nonlinearity of energy consumption along a path. We further model the UAV energy consumption and propose an efficient particle swarm optimisation (PSO) metaheuristic algorithm to achieve better solution quality. Compared to traditional PSO, the proposed algorithm achieved a 5% to 22% improvement under different wind scenarios by simulating real-life situations. In conclusion, the proposed method can achieve safe UAV operations with sufficient separation and less energy consumption.

Uncovering the link between intra-individual heterogeneity and variety seeking: the case of new shared mobility

Preferences can vary both across respondents (i.e. inter-respondent preference heterogeneity) and across choice tasks within respondents (i.e. intra-respondent preference heterogeneity). Ignoring the existence of intra-respondent preference heterogeneity could bias preference elicitation and demand forecast. Thus far, most studies covering inter- and intra-respondent preference heterogeneity have applied the mixed multinomial logit model. Meanwhile, the behavioural explanations for such preference variations remain under-explored. This paper accommodates inter- and intra-respondent preference heterogeneity through a two-layer latent class modelling structure, where the continuous random distributions are replaced with discrete mixtures in both layers. A latent variable representing variety-seeking is included to explain class membership probabilities, offering additional behavioural insights concerning the source of preference heterogeneity both across and within respondents. Two aspects associated with variety-seeking are examined: novelty-seeking (i.e. the inclination to adopt new modes) and alternation (i.e. the tendency to vary one’s behaviour regularly by selecting different modes continuously). In the context of new shared mobility, this paper finds the role of both aspects in preference heterogeneity. Specifically, novelty seekers are found to be more likely to fall into the class with higher probabilities of switching from existing modes to the new air taxi service than novelty avoiders, and alternation seekers are more likely to belong to the class with higher probabilities to exhibit intra-respondent preference heterogeneity than alternation avoiders. This paper, therefore, provides empirical evidence to identify the target customers of the new air taxi service.

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

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.

Drawing the Highways in the Sky for Urban Air Mobility Operations

Urban air mobility (UAM) is a new mode of intracity transportation that promises to free commuters of ground congestion by providing air-taxi services within dense metropolitan environments. The introduction of UAM operations into the airspace, however, brings challenges related to the efficient and equitable management of UAM air traffic, particularly with regard to trajectory assignment and optimization. Near-term UAM missions are anticipated to operate within structured airspace corridors, leading to the interesting problem of corridor formation. In this paper, we describe a minimum-cost, network flow optimization framework that provides global optimal corridors for a given set of origin-destination pairs, subject to airspace metrics such as airspace density, complexity, and flexibility. The framework is applied to both small-scale scenarios that demonstrate the behavior of the framework and a full-scale scenario representative of the Atlanta metropolitan area. This work contributes to understanding how to effectively integrate UAM into the airspace.

Basic Considerations and Conceptual Design of a VSTOL Vehicle for Urban Transportation

On-demand air transport is an air-taxi service concept that should ideally use small, autonomous, Vertical Short Takeoff and Landing (VSTOL), “green”, battery-powered electric aircraft (eVSTOL). In addition, these aircraft should be competitive with modern helicopters, which are exceptionally reliable machines capable of the same task. For certification and economic purposes, mobile tilting parts should be avoided. The concept introduced in this paper simplifies the aircraft and makes it economical to build, certify and maintain. Four contrarotating propellers with eight electric motors are installed. During cruise, only two of the eight rotors available are not feathered and active. In the first step, a commercial, certified, jet-fueled APU and an available back-up battery are used. A second solution uses a CNG APU and the same back-up battery. Finally, the third solution has a high-density dual battery that is currently not available. A conceptual design is shown in this paper.

Flight Scheduling and Fleet Sizing for an Airport Shuttle Air Taxi Service

A multicommodity network flow framework for optimal flight scheduling for an envisioned airport shuttle air taxi service is presented. The framework includes a trip generation model that simulates requests from individuals who travel to and from the airport and are willing to pay for the travel time savings associated with an airport shuttle air taxi service. The framework can be used to determine the fleet size required to satisfy a given user demand and to assess how an operator’s profitability can be influenced by multiple factors, including the population density and income distribution in a metropolitan area, fleet size, ticket price, and air taxi operating costs. The results for an example business airport shuttle service to and from Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport suggest that a viable business case is possible using electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. For example, the results for this Atlanta case study indicate that it is possible to have profitable business use case with positive cash flow with a four-seat aircraft with a 60-mile design range and a 150 mph cruise speed using a fleet size of five aircraft at a price point of $5 per passenger-mile during near-term small-scale operations.

A Methodology for the Comparative Analysis of Hybrid Electric and All-Electric Power Systems for Urban Air Mobility

The present investigation addresses the topic of Urban Air Mobility with particular reference to the air-taxi service with electrified power systems. A new and detailed methodology is proposed for the simplified design and energy analysis of conventional, hybrid-electric, and full-electric power systems for this application. The original contributions to the scientific literature on UAM are the detailed modeling approach, the evaluation of CO2 emissions with a Well-to-Wing approach as a function of the electricity Emission Intensity factor, and the comparison with road vehicles performing the same route in different driving conditions. The comparison demonstrates the advantages of a full electric air-taxi with today’s technology versus a hybrid-electric road taxi, especially in cases involving low emission intensity and unfavorable driving conditions (congested traffic, aggressive driving style, and high circuity factor values). In the case of 2035 technology, the comparison with a referenced fully electric road vehicle is detrimental to the air taxi but the values of Well-to-Wheel/Wing CO2 with the expected Emission Intensity of 90 g/kWe for the European Union are still quite low (67 g/km). The investigation also quantifies the negative effect of battery aging on the consumption of the air taxi and on the number of consecutive flights that can be performed without fully charging the battery.

Passenger-centric Urban Air Mobility: Fairness trade-offs and operational efficiency

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) envisions safe transportation systems that will exploit new vertical takeoff and landing electric aircraft to transport passengers or cargo within urban and suburban areas. To be successful, it will require an integrated approach able to balance efficiency and safety while leveraging common resources and information. In this work we focus on future urban air-taxi services, and present the first methods and algorithms to efficiently operate air-taxi at scale. Our approach is twofold. First, we use a passenger-centric perspective which introduces traveling classes, and information sharing between transport modes to differentiate quality of services. This helps smooth multimodal journeys and increase passenger satisfaction. Second, we provide a flight routing and recharging solution which minimizes direct operational costs while preserving long term battery life through reduced energy-intense recharging. Our methods, which surpass the performance of a general state-of-the-art commercial solver, are also used to gain meaningful insights on the design space of the air-taxi problem, including solutions to hidden fairness issues.

A novel two-phase location analytics model for determining operating station locations of emerging air taxi services

Air taxi is a new and emerging form of urban air mobility (UAM) for reducing traffic congestion in metropolitan cities by providing on-demand aviation services to millions of customers daily. These aviation services leverage the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) technology, and hence, could operate even from building rooftops. This study aims to determine the location of infrastructure facilities for efficient eVTOL air taxi network operation in urban areas and its neighborhood. We utilize a unique two-phase procedure that integrates the multi-criteria warm start technique with an iterative k-means clustering algorithm. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we compare the model’s performance with the results obtained in the previous studies for various settings, such as percentage of time savings, demand satisfaction, passenger willingness to fly rate, and on-road travel limits. The results show the proposed methods yield a better solution than previous studies in terms of several metrics such as the Davies Bouldin index, number of clusters, and multi-criteria attributes.

Skyport location problem for urban air mobility system

With rapid advancement in aerial vehicle technologies, air taxi is drawing keen interest as a new type of transportation service. One of the necessary elements for air taxi-based transportation service system is a skyport, which is a designated area for take-off and landing of air taxis. In planning a skyport network for air taxi transportation system, it is important to consider midair congestion between air taxis. Severe congestion increases the risk of collisions, which in turn increases the complexity in scheduling and routing in the subsequent operations phase.In this study, we propose a novel hub location problem (HLP) that incorporates traffic congestion caused by intersecting vehicles along hub-to-hub arcs. Modeling congestion in an HLP formulation involves nonconvex bilinear terms, which makes it difficult to solve. We tackle this challenge by exploiting a property of an optimal solution and reformulating the original model to obtain a linear formulation. We also develop a heuristic algorithm based on a genetic algorithm to handle large-size problems for practical applications. Using the proposed model and solution methods, extensive experiments have been conducted to study optimal design of air taxi network under various environments. Our analyses demonstrate that viability of air taxi service is a complicated function of many factors including collision risk, system cost, airspace design, to name a few. Our model can offer quantitative understanding of such complex relationships to assess and develop strategies to improve the viability of an air taxi transportation system.

Problems and perspectives of innovative projects implementation of the city air taxi service

Problems and perspectives of innovative projects implementation of the city air taxi service

Are commuter air taxis coming to your city? A ranking of 40 cities in the United States

Given the high levels of congestion that many commuters in the United States experience, the urban air mobility community has been exploring the potential of using a new class of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for commuters. To date, only a few studies have been conducted that compare how potential air taxi demand across cities varies. This study calculates a measure of air taxi demand for commuters for the 40 most populous combined statistical areas (CSAs) in the U.S. by using: (1) cell phone data to identify regular commuters in cities, (2)census data to associate household income characteristics with commuters, and (3)a mode choice model calibrated from a stated preference survey to predict the number of commuters that would use an air taxi. Air taxi commuter demand is concentrated in a handful of CSAs; the CSAs for New York City, LosAngeles, and Washington, D.C., generate 33percent of the overall air taxi demand. Results are sensitive to location of existing vertiports, existing ground infrastructure and congestion levels on competing modes, and current commute patterns. A resultant set of online maps of potential air taxi routes allows readers to visualize how air taxi commuter routes differ across CSAs. Results will be of value both to aircraft manufacturers seeking to design air taxi vehicles to serve different cities as well as city planners for identifying where investments in port infrastructure may be needed to support a commuter air taxi service.