Integrated framework and assessment of on-demand air service in multimodal context

On-demand air service presents a potentially viable alternative to road transport and commercial air transport in a regional transportation system. The objective of this research is a framework to better understand the performance and economic requirements for this mode. An integrated modeling framework is presented in this paper that models in composite fashion a regional transportation system including three principal modes of transport: road transport, commercial air transport, and a hypothetical on-demand air service mode, which can be configured differently for each simulation.Demandforecast modeling is based on the traditional four-step process, including a multinomial logit model for traveler mode choice and the network assignment carried out on a "composite network" consisting of all the modal networks. Scenarios with varying on-demand air service network sizes and price structures are presented as case studies to illuminate the most appropriate service networks for on-demand air service. Assuming typical very light jet aircraft parameters, the studies show that most of the demand for on-demand air service lies in medium-range trips (∼200 miles). On-demand air service comparative competitiveness is limited by its high cost for longer-range trips in spite of having superior capability. Finally, the framework also demonstrates a viable analytical tool for studying transportation systems with multimodal interactions.