Regional Air Mobility for Business Travel in Germany Considering Instrument Flight Rules

Connecting regional airfields with small aircraft that utilize electric propulsion technologies is commonly referred to as regional air mobility. The range of these aircraft is restricted by the mass-specific energy of the energy carrier, particularly when they are powered by batteries. Additionally, commercial operations under instrument flight rules introduce a distance overhead compared to the great circle distance. This paper investigates the demand of business travelers for regional air mobility in Germany using a multinomial logit model and accounts for overhead related to instrument flight rules. The result is a network of routes for four different “aircraft total range” scenarios between 200 and 500 km for a nine-passenger battery-electric aircraft. The aircraft total range is defined as the distance of the nominal flight, including distance overhead from instrument flight rules, plus the distance to the diversion aerodrome. The resulting network varies with aircraft total range, with 3–219 routes in the 200 and 500 km cases, respectively. The analysis shows that the distance overhead from instrument flight rules can significantly impact the nominal flight distance. An approximation for this distance overhead is provided, and its impact on battery sizing in the conceptual aircraft design stage is showcased.