Determining infrastructure requirements for an air taxi service at Cologne Bonn Airport

Abstract

The worldwide increasing population density in major urban centres poses great challenges for transportation systems. Air taxi services could be a solution to this growing problem by bringing the existing transportation system to the three dimensional space. This paper analyzes the challenges and requirements of developing a vertiport intended for the use of air taxis at Cologne Bonn Airport. This research was conducted with the information available at the time of writing, for which a basis scenario is defined for the Cologne Bonn Airport where important aspects of an air taxi service are determined such as passenger demand and possible vehicles. The main aspects analysed were the requirements on the vertiport infrastructure and its location, as well as the requirements on passenger processing. For the defined basis scenario, results show that the preferential locations to develop a vertiport at Cologne Bonn Airport are the roof top levels of parking garages P2 and P3. Furthermore, it is shown that given the estimated passenger demand, a very high utilization factor of the defined infrastructure is to be expected. This paper provides a starting point for the development of an air taxi service at Cologne Bonn Airport. Further research is needed in key issues such as the financial aspects of an air taxi service, its integration into the current operating scenario of the Cologne Bonn Airport and the approval process for an air taxi service and the vertiport itself.

Urban Air Mobility: Systematic Review of Scientific Publications and Regulations for Vertiport Design and Operations

“…Based on the exemplary operating environment of Cologne Bonn (Germany) airport, ref. [91] developed a rating system considering passenger accessibility, obstacle clearance, noise impact on adjacent buildings, expandability, applicability and strategic availability in order to evaluate the potential of each identified vacant area adjacent to the airport. This included parking garages, parking fields and rooftops of an existing bus terminal and of a future hotel.…”

“…Based on that rating system, ref. [91] prioritized the rooftop level of an adjacent parking garage which provided the best passenger accessibility and may enable an almost unhindered UAM operation. During this process, several requirements deemed crucial for successful integration including vertiport connection to existing transportation modes and the proximity to terminal buildings.…”

“…There is a wide range of vertiport capacities being suggested from less than 10 to over 1000 operations per hour. A case study at Cologne airport determined an average of 9.6 movements per hour [91]. Another study focusing on business models in the Washington D.C. area considers 2-7 movements per half hour [98].…”

“…Boarding of VTOL aircraft has not been studied in depth, but conventional aircraft boarding simulations could provide a starting point for initial assumptions [143,144]. Long turnaround times, in contrast, take the perspective of a well equipped vertiport or even vertihub design with 30 min [91] or more. Next to the charging of the vehicle, which will be discussed in the next paragraph, minor MRO activities might be conducted.…”

“…Official VFR routes and ATC protocols are used in order to manage theoretically UAM traffic to and from a vertiport adjacent to Koeln Bonn Airport (Germany) [91]. While the eVTOL aircraft is following the VFR route towards the destination vertiport, ATC needs to provide clearance to the aircraft to confirm final approach at a pre-defined way point.…”