Integrating air cargo into multimodal transportation networks: vision and practical relevance of quattro-modal freight hubs

One crux of intermodal freight transportation is the ability to tranship goods from one mode of transport (MOT) towards another one. Typically, this is realised in bi- or trimodal hubs, i.e. hubs connecting two or three different MOT with each other. Talking of intermodal freight transportation these connected MOT are road, rail and/or (inland) navigation. Including air cargo into the range leads to an advancement of hubs towards quattromodal hubs, i.e. hubs combining all four so far mentioned MOT, which – to our best knowledge – literature addresses only poorly so far. In this paper, we start with a definition of quattromodality with a special focus on the integration of air cargo. It turned out, also based on site visits at best practices identified in Europe where integration of air cargo is already done or at least started, that in contrast to classical trimodal hubs quattromodal hubs are rather defined on a regional (and not local) level, i.e. that proximity is realised through mile-in-the-middle concepts. We finally focus on the Vienna region (in Austria) where a trimodal hub (road, rail, inland navigation) and a bimodal hub (road, air) are relatively close located to each other. We present four different mile-in-the-middle concepts for this region.