Insights on strategic air taxi network infrastructure locations using an iterative constrained clustering approach

Expected to launch globally in the forthcoming years, air taxis are brand-new aviation ridesharing services that will be provided by international logistic pioneers. This study is one of the first to estimate the demand for such a service and provide recommendations on the potential location of facilities to support this network operations. The authors adopt a two-phase approach: phase-1 estimates the demand for air taxi services by taking a subset of the regular taxi customers who are likely to avail this service, and phase-2 proposes a constrained clustering approach, with multimodal transportation-based warm start technique, to identify potential sites for locating infrastructures based on the estimated demand. The authors test the feasibility of the proposed approach using millions of real-life New York City taxi records. Results indicate that large facilities with a capacity of nearly 150 landings/hour have to be established in JFK International Airport and South Central Park, while smaller stops are required in World Trade Center, Washington Square and Allerton Ballfields. In addition, the authors evaluate the impact of the commuter’s “willingness to fly” rate, demand fulfillment rate and time-cost tradeoffs. Their analysis shows that the percentage of time savings and “willingness to fly” rate did not significantly impact location decisions and the number of sites, while it is necessary to conduct an intense market study to determine on-road travel limits. Insights provided in this study can act as a decision support tool for any logistics company that is interested in venturing into the air taxi market.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2019.06.003
• Record URL:
  • http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1366554519300407
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13665545
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Rajendran, Suchithra
  • 0000-0002-0817-6292
  • Zack, Joshua
• Publication Date: 2019-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 470-505
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
  • Volume: 128
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 1366-5545
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13665545

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air taxi service; Cluster analysis; Decision support systems; Infrastructure; Location; Multimodal transportation; Networks
• Geographic Terms: New York (New York)
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01717728
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 20 2019 3:14PM