Small Aircraft Transport System as a Chance for Regional and Local Airports

Development of local and regional airports is the key for development of entire air transport sector. Due to low population density in the airports neighborhood, low expected passenger flow and very limited capacities it is uneconomic to transfer any part of large airliners traffic to them. Only small, up to 19 seat aircraft are able to operate from these small airports almost without restrictions. Despite the large number of local and regional airports in Europe it is very difficult to stimulate small aircraft traffic as their utilization costs are too high. The solution is a transport system which enables decrease in operational costs and increase of potential demand by extended service range. Conducted in the framework of European Personal Air Transportation System (EPATS) and Polish Small Aircraft Transport System (STMS) projects analyses indicate that there is a niche in transport. Inaccessibility of good quality, fast ways to travel especially in remote regions creates market need for Small Aircraft Transport System, an alternative for the most popular car trips, especially on a distance 250 km above. More environmentally friendly and more effective than car small aircraft enables realizing business trip in one-day time across whole territory of Poland. To bring the idea to reality it is necessary to develop new type of passenger aircraft tailored to typical small aircraft transport system (SATS) mission profile as well as more comfortable, more silent and greener than currently available in the market. Nevertheless potential demand is huge and as roads are getting more and more congested, developing of new mode of air transport appears to be essential for realization of European cohesion policy. Especially that economic and social cost are much lower.