Edinburgh Napier University

  Recent technological advances have been playing an instrumental role in the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and flying cars, which are expected to be introduced to the transportation system in near future. These emerging transportation technologies have the potential to serve in a significant number of different usage scenarios. In this study, we investigate public willingness to use AVs and flying cars as access modes to airports. An online survey was conducted, where 692 participants from 19 countries responded. The survey included questions about respondents’ willingness to use AVs and flying cars for airport access trips, opinions towards potential benefits and concerns that may arise from their use, attitude towards existing modes, as well as a number of socio-demographic characteristics. Using the data from this survey, individuals’ opinions towards using AVs and flying cars for airport access trips are statistically modeled within a correlated grouped random parameters bivariate probit framework. The analysis results show that the willingness to use AVs and flying cars is affected by various socio-demographic characteristics, individuals’ perceptions towards perceived benefits and concerns of AVs and flying cars, as well as the individuals’ most frequent mode choice for airport access trips. The findings of this study can provide insights to airport management authorities, planners and legislative authorities to take necessary policy decisions, which would enable passengers to experience seamless traveling experience to and from the airports using AVs and flying cars.