Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes.

• Environment: the proposed solutions are expected to reduce the impact on the environment (i.e. in terms of emissions, noise and/or local air quality) or to improve the aviation environmental footprint thanks to an improved gate-to-gate planning. Additional environmental benefits will come from alleviating congestion at and around airports by improving passenger flows (through predictability and single-ticketing), etc.;
• Capacity: the proposed solutions are expected to contribute to capacity through real-time multimodal passenger constraint information that, when shared at network level, will help to reduce, for example, departure delay;
• Passenger experience: the proposed solutions shall improve the passenger experience by sharing data on air transport with travel service providers to help passengers plan intermodal journeys that include air segments. Results are expected to demonstrate the viability of the integration of airports as multimodal nodes into the ATM network to enable interoperability between aviation and other modes of transport;
• Cost-efficiency: the proposed solutions are expected to allow new ‘as a service’ businesses, based on new data-sharing standards and systems creating more value for aviation, within an integrated transport-system;
• Operational efficiency: improved, accurate, customer-focused planning, including user-driven prioritisation, allows operators to customise and optimise every flight, balancing their individual constraints against those of the network, with a direct positive impact on additional gate-to-gate flight time, fuel burn per flight, and operational costs from congestion and disruption.

Flightpath 2050, Europe’s long-term vision document on aviation research, has set the goal that 90% of travellers within Europe should be able to complete their journey, door-to-door (D2D), within 4 hours by 2050. The challenge is to develop potential innovative and breakthrough solutions to meet this goal. The role of ATM in the door-to-door chain of a passenger’s journey may seem small, but the punctuality of flights, and passengers’ perception of flying, is highly dependent on the smooth functioning of the entire journey. Considering ATM to be an integrated part of an intermodal transport system, the proposed solutions will make it possible to share data between transport modes and to collaborate better to optimise the performance of both the overall transport system and the D2D journey.

The SESAR 3 JU has identified the following innovative research elements that could be used to meet the challenge described above and achieve the expected outcomes. The list is not intended to be prescriptive; proposals for work on areas other than those listed below are welcome, provided they include adequate background and justification to ensure clear traceability with the R&I needs set out in the SRIA for the multimodality and passenger experience flagship:

• Understanding passenger expectations. Understanding passenger expectations (with regard to origin–destination, travel time, comfort, ecological impact and reliability, etc.) is a continuous activity linked to the flexibility/changes over time in demand for modes of transport. How can aviation monitor passenger expectations to improve its offer? How will changing passenger preferences shape the future multimodal transport system (e.g., airport products and services and the airport as a multimodal node)? (R&I need: passenger experience at the airport).
• Managing the passengers’ access to airport. Research aims at better understand and dynamically manage the arrival times of departing passengers at the airport. Research may consider medium/short-term predictions on the performance of different airport processes (both airside and groundside) and different factors: the operational situation at the airport (e.g., potential delays of the arriving flight (previous flight leg)), passengers’ preferences, situation along the journey to the airport in different ground transport modes, etc. The potential solutions will propose the most suitable personalized time schedule before departure per passenger, as well as a recommended transportation pattern to optimise the passenger experience e.g., avoid queuing at the airport. Research may address the use of smart contracts and the benefits that could be derived from the access to airline information using privacy-preserving solutions(R&I need: passenger experience at the airport).
• Multimodal airport. This research aims at evaluating the definition and impact assessment of new mobility solutions’ (e.g., shared mobility) for a multimodal airport. Research may cover aspects such as airport access, the use of surface modes and connected and autonomous vehicles to access the airport (including studying the trade-offs in terms of the environment, door-to-door travel time, etc.). The integration of UAM to intermodal airport solutions is also under scope (e.g., how multimodal access can help to enlarge an airport’s catchment area, etc.) (R&I need: access to / exit from the airport: airports are obvious multimodal nodes for aviation).
• ATM contribution to European Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Research aims at developing ATM innovative solutions enabling passengers to transfer seamlessly between air transport and other transportation modes to reach the final destination quickly, smoothly, predictably, on time and without interruption (R&I need: access to / exit from the airport: airports are obvious multimodal nodes for aviation). Research may address:
  • The application of consistent door-to-door oriented passenger rights to guarantee the journey reconfiguration if contracted services cannot be met, irrespective of the mode of transport;
  • The removal of the friction points for transferring between different modes of transport;
  • The connection between ATM to advanced urban and regional air mobility concepts;
  • Methods for predicting disruption in support of proactive mitigation and on suitable management and recovery mechanisms;
  • The application of trusted autonomy (TA) to improve the knowledge on how to code smart contracts where different passenger rights are coded. Access to airline information could allow to code and pay directly, insurance, cancellations, overbookings, etc.;
  • The integration and harmonization of data from disparate sources, their analysis and the generation of information and global learning.
• Seamless connection between airports of all sizes, vertiports and heliports. Research addresses potential solutions to enable simple, convenient, coordinated, safe and secure intermodal connections optimised for passenger experience. Research shall consider the EASA rulemaking task RMT.0230 about the introduction of a regulatory framework for the operation of unmanned aircraft systems and for urban air mobility in the European Union aviation system (R&I need: access to / exit from the airport: airports are obvious multimodal nodes for aviation).
• Digital twins for airports. This research aims at developing an AI-supported concept of digital twin (DT) for airports integrated within the network of transport service providers to optimise the travel time and the overall network capacity and reliability, while minimising the environmental impact and achieving a fully scalable network. Research shall address the impact on airport operations and on safety in particular. Digital twins for airports consist of virtual models designed to reflect, accurate enough, a real airport. Several sensors located at the airport and related to vital areas of airport operations e.g., catchment area will generate relevant data to describe the real airport operations and performance e.g., passengers flows, aircraft turn around processes, etc. and the airport interaction with other modes of transport. Once informed with such data, the airport digital twin can be used to:
  • Develop synthetic simulation models, both for probabilistic predictions and full simulations with virtualized assets;
  • Create a what-if scenario generation capability for different operational use cases at the airport, influx of passengers, aircraft traffic, port and runway or access control systems, etc. and their impact on the airport catchment area;
  • Generate different emergency / unusual scenarios both in the traffic at the airport itself (e.g., aircraft out of schedule, aircraft collision, any type of anomaly or malfunction, unauthorized traffic, different signals in the sensors and control and surveillance systems, terrorist attack at the airport, situations of maximum influx, adverse weather conditions, etc.) and in the airport catchment area to improve the different processes and services in those situations;
  • Run what-if simulations and in particular, to assess multimodality use cases (e.g., how decisions taken at the APOC may influence the access/egress from the airport).

Research may study performance issues and generate possible improvements, all with the goal of generating valuable insights, which can then be applied back to the original physical object (R&I need: access to / exit from the airport: airports are obvious multimodal nodes for aviation).

• Information sharing and governance in an integrated transport network. Research aims at investigating efficient ways for information transfer between transport operators as well as between transport operators and travellers. On top of the technical problems related with information sharing, one of the main issues to be addressed for the implementation of intermodal solutions is the lack of incentives and governance models (i.e. stakeholders need to perceive incentives to actually engage in coordination mechanisms). Research on governance and economic aspects is needed to address this problem. A sound governance model shall answer questions such as, for example, who is responsible for the information transfer between the service providers and the travellers and who should compensate the traveller in an intermodal trip if a connection is missed due to an unexpected disruption, which interoperable communication standard is used, etc. Research shall consider the ATM dimension of the problem, engaging with relevant ATM stakeholders (R&I need: An integrated transport network performance cockpit).
• Mobility in the context of the European Integrated Transport Network. The European transportation ecosystem is transitioning from individual modes of transport, through the concept of Integrated Transport System, towards that of Mobility. Mobility is defined as "the potential for movement and the ability to get from one place to another using one or more modes of transport to meet daily needs". As such, it differs from accessibility, which refers to the ability to access or reach a desired service or activity. There is, however, no harmonised concept for mobility, at least not in the scientific sense we normally use in Aviation. Even the European Mobility as a Service (MaaS4EU) project, the most advanced related coordinated research activity in Europe, does not aim to develop a generic "mobility" concept, but rather to prove the MaaS concept, defined as "A user-centric, intelligent mobility distribution model, in which users’ needs are met via a single platform and are offered by a service provider, the mobility operator". Research aims at developing a harmonised concept for multimodal Mobility in the context of the European Integrated Transport Network (R&I need: An integrated transport network performance cockpit).