Urban-Air Port and Supernal assembled Monday in Coventry, United Kingdom, to inaugurate Air-One, the world’s first eVTOL vertiport.
According to Ricky Sandhu, the company’s founder and executive chairman, the facility signals “a new age of zero-emission, low-congestion urban transportation,” according to Ricky Sandhu, the company’s founder and executive chairman.
He referred to the launch as “the starting gun for a new era of transport, an era of zero-emission, congestion-free travel between and among cities that will make people healthier, happier, and more connected than ever before.”
In collaboration with Hyundai Motor Group’s urban air mobility division, Supernal, Urban-Air Port, a ground infrastructure developer headquartered in the United Kingdom, displayed the world’s first fully operating eVTOL hub.
Air-One will operate for at least one month with government assistance and will serve as a “blueprint” for more than 200 proposed vertiports over the following five years. According to Urban-Air Port, the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry will increase at 9% per year over the next 20 years, eventually reaching $1 trillion.
According to Urban-Air Port, other worldwide locales, including Australia, South Korea, Germany, and the United States, are already on the company’s order book for new sites. Supernal is also anticipated to expand globally, with plans to introduce air taxi services to Miami as early as 2028.
Several eVTOL operations will be housed at Air-One, including aircraft command and control, cargo loading for unmanned drones, and demonstration flights. The vertiport will also function as a charging station for other kinds of electric transportation.
“Air-One serves as a valuable, tangible asset to help build stakeholder confidence and trust in emerging mobility technology and supporting systems,” said Supernal Chief Commercial Officer Mike Whitaker.
“The Coventry demonstration is an important first step forward to reimagining how people worldwide will move, connect and live.”
“Developing a scalable system to support advanced air mobility operations requires collaboration from all industries and corners. Supernal’s support of Urban-Air Port reinforces our belief in fusing technology and innovation to enable humanity and society to reach new levels of potential.”
The company’s website currently sells tickets for public tours of the Air-One vertiport.