Vertiports: Incidental Economic, Social, and Environmental Benefits to Local Communities
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Vertiports: Incidental Economic, Social, and Environmental Benefits to Local Communities
Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is predicted to grow over the coming decades. A key enabler for the success of AAM is the ground infrastructure, vertiports, where eVTOL aircraft will take-off and land.
With vertiport developments being planned across the country, understanding the impacts that vertiports will have on their surrounding areas is becoming increasingly important. This report by the Connected Places Catapult looks at the incidental economic, social, and environmental impacts that a vertiport could have. The report finds that as part the AAM ecosystem, vertiports will bring incidental benefits for local communities in several areas such as:
- Improved transport connectivity enabling access to more jobs over a larger geography.
- Access to out-of-town services, such as shopping, education, and specialist medical care contributing towards the local population’s standard of living and better health outcomes.
- Reduced congestion, noise, and emissions on surface transportation as travellers switch to AAM.
- Enhanced attractiveness and competitiveness of the local area for businesses and residents with, for example, freight and logistics firms setting up near rural-based vertiports where land is cheaper.
- Potential to save more lives during emergencies, with time-critical patients transported to hospitals.
The report also looks at how these impacts may vary depending on the location of the vertiport, with four case studies considered: a city centre, a shopping centre, a rural area, and a small airfield.
