Page 15 - AAA March / April 2023 Latest Magazine | GBP

reality within ten years. company will rely on an existing partnership
with Volocopter, but will also be supported by
Over the last two years, aviation authorities have been working major investors, such as EDF, Invest, and the
overtime to catch up with the technological breakthroughs in the shareholder of Aeroports de la Cote d’Azur.
sector. In June 2022, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Urban Blue plans to build a vertiport in Venice
became the first regulatory authority worldwide to publish a by 2024 and then connect other French and
regulation for the operation of air taxis in an urban environment. Italian airports via UAM.
In September last year, the US Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) released new design guidelines for vertiports, facilities built UK-based Urban-Air Port, which will build a
for AAM aircraft to operate from. In December, the UAE General national network of Air-One Vertiports around
Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) published the world’s first national the United Kingdom, has plans to construct
regulation related to the design and operational requirements around 200 Air-One vertiports around the
of vertiports. The regulation is expected to be published in its world in the next five years. Skyports, which
final version soon. has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with AirAsia
to deploy air taxi infrastructure in Malaysia,
The fledgling sector has already spawned partnerships. In is also working with Joby Aviation to develop
January, the FAA announced that it is partnering with the Korea a Living Lab passenger terminal to test tech-
Office of Civil Aviation (KOCA), to facilitate collaboration on AAM nologies and procedures for eVTOL flights.
projects. Korea’s UAM roadmap calls for commercialization of Italian conglomerate Leonardo is working
UAM by 2025. According to acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen, together with Aeroporti di Roma (AdR) in
the two agencies will work together to promote the safety over- Italy to equip vertiports with technological
sight of AAM, including airworthiness, licensing, and operations. solutions. Leonardo, which is noted for its air
The partnership with KOCA is just one in the line of agreements traffic control (ATC) technologies and solu-
that FAA has signed with different regulatory agencies, including tions for Air Traffic Control (ATC) and airport
those in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. management, is involved in the development
of an unmanned aircraft traffic management
Partnerships Aplenty system for drones and has conducted a series
Another early trend that is visible is of companies joining hands of experiments with remotely piloted vehi-
cles in the AAM field. With ‘UrbanV’, AdR is
and trying to make an early impact on the sector by constructing engaged in designing and managing ground
vertiports, for air taxis to take-off, land, recharge and undergo infrastructure for AAM projects and is devel-
maintenance. According to industry analysts, more than 200 oping a network of vertiports for Rome, Venice
companies are currently working on Vertiport projects in various and the Côte d’Azur.
regions, often in partnership with other companies. In Europe, the
Aeroporto di Roma (FCO), Aeroporto di Venezia (VCE), Aeroports In South Korea, 46 companies are participat-
de la Cote d’Azur (NCE), and Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi di ing in the Korean-style UAM demonstration
Bologna (BLQ) have launched Urban Blue, a joint company for the project K-UAM Grand Challenge, an ini-
development of UAM infrastructure at the international level. The tiative to develop and operate air vehicles

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