Urban Air Transportation for Melbourne Metropolitan Area

The advent of small, all electric aircraft has opened the opportunity for air transportation services in urban areas. The success of such a service will depend on its competitiveness with other modes of transport in terms of travel time, cost and general convenience. This will depend on individual city design, road network and transport services. This project compares air taxi services with bicycle, road and public transport for Melbourne, Australia, based on journey time from selected suburbs to the city centre. Public perception on noise and community benefit are also been addressed. Future research in this project aims at developing a realistic business model for urban air transportation in Melbourne with recommendations on landing pad locations. It is expected that this model can be used for other capital cities in Australia.