In December 2023 I’ve attended the Airport City Academy in the beautiful Vienna Airport City. The ACA is a course for decision-makers on how to successfully develop airport real estate projects. Founded by internationally recognised airport city experts Max Hirsh and Pieter van der Horst, the Airport City Academy offers a series of intensive courses aimed at enhancing the skills of airport professionals and creating a vision for the development of airport projects.
I was invited as a speaker to present Advanced Air Mobility infrastructure integration requirements. Thanks to my experience in the leading air mobility startup Volocopter I had a unique opportunity to look at the AAM infrastructure development from the inside. I’ve also written a thesis on the requirements of urban air mobility infrastructure and the specific factors needed for its integration.
Advanced Air Mobility is developing rapidly and one of the largest public passenger flights is planned for the Paris Olympics later this year. International startups from the US, Europe, China, and the UK, are competing to enter the market and provide commercial passenger services with electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (EVTOLS or air taxis)
Commercial operation of air taxis requires landing platforms or vertiports, which would process passengers similarly to airports but on a smaller scale. The vertiport design is less complex than an airport yet the integration of a new transportation 3-dimensional transport network into an existing urban context is challenging.
I’ve shown different integration and vertiport models, described the favourable urban context, highlighted the success factors and proposed the algorithm for AAM infrastructure integration. One of the main questions of the Airport City Academy regarding AAM was the potential of new infrastructure integration in airport cities.
I am grateful for this collaborative and inspiring course that brought together 17 airports from 5 continents. It’s an honour to be among industry professionals who aim to develop airports and airport cities in a smart and sustainable way. I’m looking forward to seeing the ACA alumni changing airports for the better!
A sneak peek of the presentation at AAM is available here.
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