An exploratory empirical analysis of willingness to hire and pay for flying taxis and shared flying car services

Shahriar Ahmed, Sheikh; Fountas, Grigorios; Eker, Ugur; Still, Stephen E.; Anastasopoulos, Panagiotis Ch.

Abstract

A new transportation mode that can simultaneously operate on land and in the air, namely the flying cars, is anticipated to penetrate the automobile fleet between 2020 and 2025. Due to their flexible mobility patterns and automated operational characteristics, flying taxi and shared flying car services are expected to expand the existing shared mobility services (such as Uber, Lyft, and similar services) of the urban transportation network. Despite their forthcoming introduction in the shared mobility market, public perceptions and expectations about these services have not been investigated in travel demand literature. This study aims to provide an exploratory analysis of public willingness to hire and pay for flying taxis and shared flying car services, and to identify the determinants of the willingness to hire and pay for such services. Using data collected from an online survey, individuals’ willingness to hire and to pay for flying taxi and shared flying car services are statistically modeled within a correlated grouped random parameters bivariate probit framework. The analysis shows that various socio-demographic characteristics and individuals’ opinions towards the perceived benefits and challenges of flying cars affect public willingness to hire and pay for flying taxi and shared flying car services. Even though the awareness about the operation of flying taxis and shared flying car services is possibly limited in the public sphere, the findings of this study can provide insights into the challenges that policymakers, manufacturing companies, and shared mobility providers will face with the introduction of such flying car services in the transportation networks.

Citation

Shahriar Ahmed, S., Fountas, G., Eker, U., Still, S. E., & Anastasopoulos, P. C. (2021). An exploratory empirical analysis of willingness to hire and pay for flying taxis and shared flying car services. Journal of Air Transport Management, 90, Article 101963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101963

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 13, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Nov 12, 2020
• Publication Date: 2021-01
• Deposit Date: Oct 19, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: May 13, 2022
• Print ISSN: 0969-6997
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 90
• Article Number: 101963
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101963
• Keywords: Flying cars; Flying Taxis, Shared flying cars; Willingness to hire; Willingness to pay; Correlated grouped random parameters; Bivariate probit model
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2694417