Who Wants to Fly in an eVTOL, Where, and When? The answer may surprise you.

Using metropolitan Milan, Italy as the subject of their January 2025 study to forecast demand for urban air mobility (UAM), Pierluigi Coppola, Francesco De Fabiis, and Fulvio Silvestri, researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano queried more than 2,100 Milaneses. The travel mode choice models factored in individuals’ perceptions of VTOL vehicles and low altitude flight over urban regions. They proposed airport shuttles, intercity air connections, and air taxi services. Other factors the study considered included access points (vertiports) and fare levels.

The study’s findings showed that airport shuttles (for business or pleasure) were the transportation mode of choice for 2-5% of travelers. By comparison, air taxis were preferred by 1-3% of travelers. Choosing UAM services for intercity travel proved to be a function of the distance to be traveled and proximity to vertiports. Travelers also factored in the distance to be traveled and the time required to get to a vertiport and compared those to other options, such as good railway or highway connections. But, as demand for UAM services increases so do the number of vertiports to serve them.

While it’s too early to tell how attractive UAM services will be to the public at large and under what circumstances, but this study suggests how things might shape up.

Keywords: #AAMtoday, #AAM, #UAM, #air-taxi, #vertiports,