Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft selection for ultra-short-haul routes: fuzzy AHP approach

The analysis and understanding of the environmental effects of air transport has been attracting the attention of academia and the industry for more than 20 years. It is also evident that this environmental concern has grown in recent years, with a special focus on ultra-short-haul flights. In light of a new restriction recently introduced in some EU countries related to ultra-short-haul flight bans, and the recent developments in electric propulsion technologies, the electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) offers a possibility for airlines to regain these routes. Considering the route requirements, together with the performance of electric new vehicles, the main objective of this paper is to select the new eVTOL aircraft, which could be exploited instead of conventional aircraft types. The proposed approach is based on the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) in combination with logarithmic fuzzy preference programming (LFPP) to derive priorities from expert judgments. The analysis considers operational and performance requirements for six eVTOLs candidate, evaluates their suitability through multi-criteria decision making, and examines how sensitive the results are to changes in the weighting of criteria. To illustrate the practical potential of eVTOL adoption, two banned European routes are analyzed. The findings highlight both the opportunities and limitations of integrating eVTOLs into short-haul networks and provide directions for future research in sustainable air transport. Additionally, the FAHP-derived solution, is consistently confirmed across all stakeholder groups as the most appropriate alternative.