Hierarchical Vertiport Network for an Urban Air Mobility System: Munich Metropolitan Area Case Study

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is considered a future alternative for not only inner-city but also regional travel. Because of the high cost of building the UAM infrastructure, UAM take-off and landing spots should be placed strategically, maximising benefits for both passengers and the operator. We referred to the hub location theory when developing possible UAM transportation networks and locating vertiports, considering a hierarchical hub network that distinguishes between two types of hubs (hubs and central hubs). We adjusted the hierarchical model with a single assignment, allowing direct travel between demand nodes assigned to the same hub. We applied the model to a Bavarian transportation network consisting of 5 central hubs (4 cities and Munich Airport) and investigated which way of incorporating the city of Munich into the network would produce the best results in terms of minimising the mean passenger travel time.