On Key Parameters for the Attractiveness of On-Demand Inter-City Air Mobility

In this paper, we present a globally applicable approach for estimating the potential passenger demand for On- Demand Inter-City Air Mobility based on three different use cases. All of these cases are concerned with pas- sengers who nowadays travel with conventional airlines, and might choose On-Demand Air Mobility (ODAM) as an alternative mode of travel in future. First, we consider the possibility to complement direct connections on low-demand inter-city routes. Second, we analyse the possibility of replacing multi-stop connections, where the origin and destination airports are within a certain range. Third, we take a look at feeder flights from small or regional airports to bigger hubs and vice versa. The approach is then used for estimating the impact of five parameters on the ODAM market size. These are namely air taxi speed, air taxi range, the set of usable airports, a time offset which is added to the flight time of every trip and the availability of alternate airports. We conduct this investigation for four regions: China, Europe, India, and the US and analyse the differences between the various parameters over the different use cases in these regions. The results show that the potential market size differs widely between regions, use cases and parameters. The largest potential market overall can be identified in Europe with approximately 6.7 million PAX and about 582 Million USD revenue per year. For all regions, in total, complementing direct flights attracts most people to use ODAM as an alternative way of transportation. Considering that the value proposition of ODAM is the reduction of travel time, both technical and operational parameters of air taxis show a high impact on the potential market size. Compared to cars, their advantage lies in the higher speed, whereas the absence of schedule delay is the main advantage compared to conventional air travel