Package delivery by electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft? An attractiveness assessment

Daniel Perez, Bo Zou and Nahid Parvez Farazi

Journal of Air Transport Management, 2025, vol. 124, issue C

Abstract: Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) are gaining growing interest recently. However, limited attention has been paid to the prospect of using eVTOLs for package delivery. To fill this void, this paper explores the attractiveness of eVTOL-based package delivery in terms of cost, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions. Given that eVTOLs cannot take off/land at customer doorsteps, a two-leg system design is proposed and formulated as an optimization model. To implement the model, we consider multiple plausible eVTOL and ground vehicle types, their cost economics, and energy use and CO2 emission characteristics. Applying the model in the Chicago metro region, we find that the attractiveness of eVTOL-based package delivery depends critically on the eVTOL and ground vehicle types. With an appropriate eVTOL-ground vehicle combination, eVTOL-based delivery can be attractive compared to van-only delivery in terms of total shipping cost, but not necessarily so from the energy and emission perspectives. This highlights the need for future R&D to further enhance the energy efficiency of eVTOLs. When designing eVTOL-based package delivery systems, the importance to account for the potential interactions between eVTOL traffic and commercial air traffic should also be recognized.

Keywords: Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft; Two-leg system design; Total shipping cost; Energy consumption; CO2 emissions; Vertiports (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:124:y:2025:i:c:s0969699724001960

DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2024.102731

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