Analysis of ground access modes choice King Khaled International Airport, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Abstract Airports are vital to the transportation system because air travel is the fastest means of transporting people and goods around the world. Airports also connect aviation systems with other modes of transportation. As a result, access modes to airports are critical to the aviation system, and studying air passenger decisions regarding mode choice is an essential part of airport management and system planning. Though there has been systematic analysis of car use to access airports, there has been less systematic attention to the use of the public transport system, especially the taxi service. The aim of this study is to identify King Khaled International Airport (KKIA) access mode characteristics and users, which has not been investigated previously concentrating on the mix between car and taxi using data collected specifically for this research. More than half (55.5% of the travelers surveyed arrived at KKIA by private car; taxi and limousine passengers accounted for 42.2% of the sample. The Saudi Public Transit Company (SAPTCO) transported only 2.3% of the air passengers surveyed. These results are similar to findings for an airport in the United States and very different from findings for an airports in the East (e.g. Hong Kong) A binary logit model was developed to evaluate the access mode choice. It was found that income, luggage, travel access time, and nationality significantly affect mode choice. Results provide insight for improved planning of access to KKIA.