2424. A Two Stage eVTOL Location and Demand Optimization for Urban Air Mobility
Invited abstract in session MC-57: Mathematical Models and UAV Applications, stream Transportation.
Monday, 12:30-14:00Room: Liberty 1.12
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Gideon Gottschalg
|
| Mercator Endowed Chair of Demand Management & Sustainable Transport, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management | |
| 2. | Arne Strauss
|
| WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management |
Abstract
In recent years, the number of electrical vertical take-off and landing vehicle (eVTOL) designs and start-ups has significantly increased. Operators promise to reduce both road congestion due to increasing urban traffic and emissions compared to combustion vehicles.
However, operators face several challenges during the piloting and implementation of an eVTOL service. Besides regulatory and safety concerns, one key question is how to implement a profitable operation of a fleet of eVTOLs given uncertain customer adoption. The investment decision reflects the choice of the number and location of vertiports, as well as the number of vehicles.
In this work, we propose a risk-averse two-stage newsvendor optimization model for an eVTOL airport shuttle service as an application of eVTOLs in urban area mobility. In the first stage, a strategic decision on the number of eVTOLs and number and location of vertiports in the urban area and at the airport site must be made under uncertain demand. In the second stage, the operational phase of the chosen vertiport configuration is optimized. We use an optimal learning framework to evaluate the expected performance of different first-stage decisions. We test our model in a case study with real-world data from a European airport.
Keywords
- Transportation
Status: accepted
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