Shaping air taxi adoption: Unraveling the interplay of travel patterns and attitudes

This study underscores the central role of travel patterns in shaping air taxi adoption by segmenting potential users and examining how habitual behavior pattern conditions their intentions. Using a latent class ordered logit model on 625 valid in-person survey data from Seoul, South Korea, we identify two policy-relevant segments: established travel patterns and flexible travel patterns. Travel patterns strength consistently moderates the effects of pro-environmental self-identity, perceptions of autonomous technology, and safety concerns. Individuals with established travel patterns show stronger sensitivity to safety, reliability, and integration with existing routines, while those with flexible travel patterns respond more to environmental appeals, perceived convenience, and autonomous features. These results suggest that travel patterns should be explicitly incorporated into acceptance models, regulatory planning, and marketing strategies. For established users, priorities include rigorous safety certification, transparent risk communication, and seamless multimodal integration to reduce disruption to routines. For flexible users, emphasize time savings, environmental benefits, user-friendly digital services, and incentives. By foregrounding travel patterns, the study offers a replicable analytical framework and practical guidance for policymakers and industry to design targeted interventions that enhance public acceptance and facilitate integration of air taxis into urban transport.