Potential of Advanced Air Mobility in German and Austrian Organ Transplantation

Advanced Air Mobility commercial use cases gained momentum in recent years with various companies operating a regular service with UAVs while SC-VTOL sized aircraft for human transport might be available in the coming years. In the short-term, UAV cargo applications seem more feasible and realistic as already demonstrated by the industry and in research. In particular, healthcare applications for UAVs are of interest given the highest public acceptance for medical use cases and the relevant medical outcome improvement through shorter transport times. Current research of UAVs in healthcare focuses on proving the technical feasibility through proof of concepts, while the more general research in the UAV space targets topics such as air traffic integration, air traffic management, ground operations, aircraft design and performance, but the potential impact on country-level and logistics networks of this technology is underrepresented. In this study we assess the potential of transporting goods in the context of organ transplantation in Austria and Germany and evaluate the direct time benefits of the transport itself and discuss the indirect benefits of more flexible planning and process design enabled by AAM technology. Reducing the organ’s Cold Ishemia Time, i.e., the time outside of a human body, is crucial to improve the medical outcome for patients. Transport time is one part of Cold Ishemia Time, hence, a transport time reduction directly translates to a Cold Ishemia Time reduction. Currently existing reference AAM aircraft are used to determine their addressable organ transplantation transport market and the respective time benefit. It is found that wingborne horizontal flight capable aircraft are better suited due to their range and cruise speed capabilities. Three reference aircraft in three categories are chosen for this analysis. For small scale UAVs, Rigitech, the best suited UAV, could cover - depending on the organ - 9-37% of all transports in Germany, while achieving an average time benefit of 15.8 - 17.1 minutes compared to ground based transportation. In Austria, 45-62% is addressable while achieving an average time benefit of 7.4 - 7.9 minutes. In the medium scale UAV category, Elroy Air would perform best as they could cover 84 - 98% of all transports in Germany and 99-100% in Austria, while achieving average time benefits of 72.3 - 129.6 minutes in Germany and 28.3 - 62.2 minutes in Austria. The Lilium jet performs best in the EASA SC-VTOL category with an addressable share of 44 - 88% transports in Germany and 94 - 97% in Austria, while achieving average time benefits of 65.7 - 89.4 minutes in Germany and 43.2 - 62.8 minutes in Austria. Small scale UAVs are capable to transport lab samples in the context of organ transportation, while medium scale UAVs could transport the organ itself in a cooled storage box or in a perfusion machine, and SC-VTOL aircraft would be able to also carry medical doctors and patients.