Develop Methodologies to Inform the Integration of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) into the National Air Space System (NAS)

Provider: FAA ASSURE programme, subcontractor to Sinclair Community/Simlat College

Duration: 07/2023 – 06/2025

Project Webpage: https://assureuas.org/projects/develop-models-to-inform-the-integration-of-advanced-air-mobility-aam-into-the-national-air-space-system-nas/

Description:

The popularity of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) planning had caught the attention of the aviation industry in recent years. The highly automated AAM/UAM systems were projected to play an important role in improving inter- and intra-metropolitan-area connectivity. As AAM/UAM reduced the time and cost of traveling within and across metropolitan areas, the resulting increase in mobility was likely to shift commercial aviation from major airports closer to metropolitan cores toward peripheral airports.

Airports had the potential to change their roles—some possibly transitioning from regional to hub status or vice versa—due to shifting activities to underutilized Class B/C/D airports, or through the consolidation and specialization of commercial aviation at select locations. The proposed research aimed to understand (i) the evolution of lower-utilized airports as service points for AAM activities such as air taxis or air metros, (ii) the subsequent impact on passenger flow through the existing commercial aviation network, and (iii) the resulting structural changes in the National Airspace System (NAS) network.