Accessibility study for electric aviation

The Nordic region shares many similar accessibility challenges for remote and rural regions. Citizens in some of these regions have limited access to public services, work opportunities and the larger national and international transport system. In addition, companies and public administrations have difficulty attracting skills to the regions. The geographical characteristics of some of these areas, such as large bodies of water, vast forest areas, long coastal lines, mountain ranges and fjords, limit mobility to and from these areas. Poor road quality or limited public transport also worsen the situation. Some of these places are therefore more accessible by airplane than by other modes of transport and would experience a significant reduction in travel time using airplane as compared to other modes of transport, such as train, bus or car. However, the expansion of the aviation system varies among the Nordic countries.

In the report Nordic Sustainable Aviation (Ydersbond et al, 2020), the Nordic region is presented as a suitable test bed for electric aviation. Both because of the geographical characteristics but also because of the short distance between regional centers and the limited number of passengers. Where and how accessibility can be improved by implementing electric aviation on these short distances is important to investigate to understand the potential impact of the first stages of this transition.  

This accessibility study is a part of the project  Electric Aviation and the Effect on Nordic Regions , which aims to investigate how regions and local areas in the Nordic area will be affected by the implementation of electric aviation. One of these aims is to understand where the implementation of electric aviation could offer the largest accessibility gains. This accessibility study will therefore investigate which routes benefit most in terms of time saved traveling from one point to another using electric aircrafts in comparison to the current fastest transport mode. 

The countries in focus for the project are Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland. However, in this accessibility study, we also included Åland. Due to its strategic location, with close distance to both Sweden and Finland, Åland has the possibility to function as a suitable testbed for electric aviation (Nordic Energy Research, 2020). The other two autonomous areas, Greenland and Faroe Islands, are excluded from the analysis. In Greenland, travel distances are long, and the first-generation electric aircrafts do not match up in terms of speed and distance (Simple flying, 2021). The Faroes mainly use helicopters for domestic flight. For future domestic transport, emphasis is put on the many existing and planned road tunnels to increase connectivity between the islands and the capital Tórshavn (Landsverk, 2021). The shortest air route from Faroe to Reykjavík (approximately 500 km) exceeds the travel distance limitation of electric aviation.

In the following we will describe the process, including methodological considerations and selection criteria. For detailed description of data processing, see  Appendix A .

In the following section we will present the results from the calculations made in previous steps. The results are then discussed for three different categories of routes: 1) Routes which are already served with commercial flight, 2) Routes between urban areas separated by water and 3) Routes between urban and rural areas.

The map presents an overview of all airports in the Nordic Region. Click on an airport for information about name, IATA-code and ICAO- code.

 Appendix A   Appendix B   Appendix C