Innovative mobility solutions open possibilities to enhance transportation efficiency, accessibility, and sustainability, transforming how people and goods move within urban environments. Urban air mobility (UAM), and its specific use case of air shuttle services by electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft connecting an airport to its catchment area, are actively researched, providing preliminary findings to support further steps towards full implementation of this innovative mobility solution.

This solution focuses on vertiport placement and capacity as one of the enablers of that service. MAIA-UAM is a framework for vertiport sizing and location evaluation to improve passenger experience, considering associated demand-capacity balancing challenges while ensuring the safety of operations. MAIA-UAM deals with vertiports collocated with airports and vertiports across the catchment area. The solution's approach for vertiport site selection in an urban environment relies on MAIA-Engine algorithms, assumed users, and service acceptance drivers (e.g., travel time savings, travel cost, etc.). For vertiport site selection within the airport area, MAIA-UAM balances trade-offs between physical space availability, passenger comfort (e.g., accessibility, security procedures, etc.), and the complexity of integrating eVTOL operations into the airport environment.

The major challenge for MAIA-UAM solution development is the lack of or not fully formulated regulatory and operational environments and constraints, which therefore introduce uncertainties into both model design and input data layers. As the entire UAM ecosystem matures, including the eVTOL vehicles and their performance, affected aspects of the MAIA-UAM solution will be updated.

BENEFITS
Anticipate vertiport network design to facilitate UAM airport shuttle service
Improved passenger experience
Optimisation models can be used by different stakeholders