Running summarizing tools on a new article

Abstract: Urban Air Mobility (UAM) services employing electric Vertical Take Off and Landing vehicles (eVTOL) will likely start in the next few years, and numerous research efforts are directed toward creating the necessary conditions for their successful implementation. Although vertiport location and vertiport capacity are recognized as key factors influencing UAM service performance, a notable research gap still remains in both areas. The vertiport location problem is addressed in the literature predominantly from the demand perspective, focusing on approximate macro-locations, e.g. centroids of the postal codes. Very limited research has addressed the micro-location level - determining the exact locations where vertiports should be built - which requires integrating other factors beyond demand. We aim to contribute to vertiport micro-location decisions by focusing on the hub nodes of the UAM airport shuttle network - vertiports at airports. Taking the airport operator’s perspective, who will be responsible for planning and investing in such vertiports, we propose a framework for vertiport site selection that includes: selecting candidate sites, identifying relevant criteria, evaluating candidates against each criterion, and ranking them using a selected multi-criteria decision-making method. The study also contributes to capacity and cost estimation by introducing an online vertiport sizing and capacity tool that proposes the most favorable vertiport configuration(s) for any given area. The proposed framework is demonstrated through a case study of Madrid Airport. Beyond delivering a final ranking of ten candidate sites, a transparent evaluation process enables airport operators to understand the capacity-area trade-off, capacity capping in a single layout, and capacity increase by combining two layouts, the impact of vertiport type on cost, or landside/airside position on vertiport-to-terminal accessibility, as well as limitations with the current regulatory framework.