On 18 April 2016, at the Institute of Aviation, Direct AiR Transport (DART) project has started. The project is a feasibility study of small aircraft transport in Poland.
The DART project assumes using Polish Aero Club resources: aircraft, pilots, airfields, which means that barrier of entry resulting from investment cost is significantly smaller.
Project scope include legal challenges, using GNSS approach procedures and remote Aerodrome Information Service (rAFIS) as well as market analysis and business plan development.
The project is partially financed by the European Space Agency (ESA). The project coordinator is ITTI, while partners, apart from Institute of Aviation are Polish Aero Club and MLabs. The planned project end date is 18 January, 2017.
In the Institute of Aviation, Transport Systems Department is working on the project (Center of New Technologies).
Institute of Aviation coordinated three past projects dealing with SATS: EPATS, STMS and SAT-rdmp. The research results indicate potential demand for SATS travel. The projects deliverables are available at the websites: epats.eu and epats.eu/SATRdmp.
Small aircraft transport system (SATS) is assumed to use 4 to 19 seater, piston, turbine or jest powered aircraft for passenger transport on a larger scale than current air taxi. The main target group are business travelers, for whom shorter time of travel justifies higher ticket price. The benefits result from avoiding overnight stay costs and idle time. Assumed trip distance ranges between 300 and 1000 km.
