Assessment of passengers’ safety and risk attitudes on integrated urban air mobility and airline services

Abstract

This study introduces the concept of Air Mobility as a Service (AMaaS) by integrating Urban Air Taxi (UAT) services into the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) framework, aiming to enabling seamless multimodal transportation. The objective is to investigate commuter preferences for adopting multimodal UAT services. A stated choice experiment was designed to capture joint choice of UAT-based alternatives and subscription schemes, alongside attitudinal measures assessing the influence of safety and risk perceptions on adoption behavior. Using data collected in Beijing, a hybrid choice model with latent variables was estimated. Results show that subscription-based schemes, particularly sustainable options like Bike + UAT and PT + UAT, are generally preferred over pay-as-you-go alternatives. Government support and discounts significantly increase adoption likelihood. Safety perceptions also play a critical role. Specifically, perceived UAT safety encourages adoption, while safety consciousness, and perceived UAT risks hinder the use of these services. Individuals with higher safety consciousness are less likely to use pay-as-you-go options, and those perceiving UAT as risky are less inclined to use subscription schemes, particularly Taxi + UAT. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers and UAT service providers in designing effective policies and marketing strategies to promote UAT adoption.