The Potential of Mobility-as-a-Service as an Access Facilitator to Airports
mobility-as-a-service; airport; access; mobility
With technological advances, air transport has become increasingly accessible. Air transport on the one hand ensures travel in a short time, on the other hand, many airports are far from the central regions of large cities. Many airports are accessible by a variety of modes, such as: private cars, taxis, trains, subway, buses, dedicated buses, limousines and long-distance buses. However, if these trips are not convenient, practical, dynamic and regular, as well as efficient in costs and travel times, they can cause difficulties for travelers. Mobility in cities is changing, information and communication technologies have generated innovations in business models in mobility with various features. As an evolution of these technological alternatives, the concept of Mobility as a service (Mobility-as-a-Service or Maas) emerged in Finland in 2014. The Maas works as an integrator of the various alternatives of public or private transportation, allowing the user to plan, schedule and pay for their trip through the same application, in a pay-as-you-go system or through monthly registrations. Many companies around the world are focusing on Maas as a way to make it easier for people to move around. In addition, they are offering Maas-like services for airports. Among them, we can mention SHOTL, Lyko and the Japan Airline, ANA. In the academic literature, it is evident a lack of investigations that address the influence of Maas in the context of air transport. This research aims to assess the potential impact of MaaS in the air transport sector, using an approach that combines an analysis of information from companies involved in the provision or use of land transport services to airports, together with the application of a questionnaire to assess the receptivity of passengers to MaaS mobility solutions. The results derived from the research revealed that the acceptance rate of the Maas platform among the participants reached the expressive mark of 76.95%. In parallel, an in-depth analysis was conducted in order to characterize the profile of the user willing to adopt an integration between air and land transport.