Volocopter confirms its intention to launch air taxi services in Singapore by 2023

Volo­copter has com­mit­ted to launch its VoloC­i­ty air taxi ser­vice in Sin­ga­pore with­in the next three years, putting the city-state in pole posi­tion to be one of the first regions in Asia to begin Urban Air Mobil­i­ty oper­a­tions.

The Ger­man start­up has been work­ing close­ly with the Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Board of Sin­ga­pore (EDB) and the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty of Sin­ga­pore (CAAS) for the last two years and in prepa­ra­tion for the launch, has found­ed Volo­copter Asia Hold­ing and appoint­ed Hon Lung Chu as its Head of Asia Pacif­ic in Sin­ga­pore.

Flo­ri­an Reuter, CEO of Volo­copter, said: “Sin­ga­pore is renowned for its lead­ing role in adapt­ing and liv­ing new tech­nolo­gies. Our suc­cess­ful coop­er­a­tion with EDB, MOT, and CAAS on our pre­vi­ous flight has shown that there is no bet­ter place in Asia to launch our elec­tric air taxi ser­vices than in Sin­ga­pore.

“The city’s research insti­tutes con­duct­ing R&D play an inte­gral part in this. Top­ics like route val­i­da­tion for autonomous oper­a­tions, mate­r­i­al sci­ence, and research regard­ing bat­tery tech­nol­o­gy are very impor­tant for our long-term busi­ness suc­cess.” 

Volo­copter’s VoloC­i­ty eVTOL air taxi will fly up to two pas­sen­gers direct­ly and has a range of 35km, trav­el­ling at speeds of up to 110km/h. Its first route in the Lion City is expect­ed to be a touris­tic route over the south­ern waters, offer­ing breath­tak­ing views of the Mari­na Bay sky­line.

This could pro­vide Sin­ga­pore with a new attrac­tion to enhance Singapore’s tourism indus­try in the con­text of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Fol­low-on con­nec­tions may include cross-bor­der flights, which may enhance region­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty and offer a sig­nif­i­cant­ly improved trav­el expe­ri­ence to Singapore’s clos­est eco­nom­ic cen­tres.

Lead­ing up to the launch of com­mer­cial oper­a­tions, Volo­copter will build up a team of 50 pilots, engi­neers, oper­a­tion spe­cial­ists, and busi­ness man­agers.

The com­pa­ny is expect­ed to hire more than 200 full-time employ­ees in Sin­ga­pore to man­age a net­work of routes by 2026. Volo­copter has also ini­ti­at­ed research and devel­op­ment projects with local insti­tu­tions, start­ing with Fraun­hofer Sin­ga­pore at the Nanyang Tech­no­log­i­cal Uni­ver­si­ty. 

Mr. Tan Kong Hwee, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent of EDB, said: “Urban Air Mobil­i­ty is an emerg­ing area with­in the broad­er mobil­i­ty sec­tor, which we have iden­ti­fied as a growth indus­try for Sin­ga­pore.

“We are glad that Volo­copter has cho­sen Sin­ga­pore to anchor its com­mer­cial and R&D activ­i­ties. This will help build new capa­bil­i­ties for our mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem and cre­ate many excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for Sin­ga­pore.”  

Before launch­ing the ser­vices in Sin­ga­pore, Volo­copter will obtain the nec­es­sary reg­u­la­to­ry approvals, includ­ing those from CAAS and the Euro­pean Union Avi­a­tion Safe­ty Agency (EASA).

Volocopter’s reg­u­la­to­ry approvals will be facil­i­tat­ed by CAAS and EASA’s Work­ing Arrange­ment on Air­wor­thi­ness Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, which allows for val­i­da­tion of type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to be done con­cur­rent­ly and in close coor­di­na­tion.

To achieve this, Volo­copter will, togeth­er with stake­hold­ers, also be con­duct­ing com­pre­hen­sive tests, flight tri­als, eval­u­a­tions, and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion before approval to com­mence com­mer­cial air taxi oper­a­tions can be grant­ed. 

Mr. Tan Kah Han, Senior Direc­tor (Unmanned Sys­tems Group) of CAAS, added: “In this new area of Urban Air Mobil­i­ty, we look for­ward to con­tin­ue work­ing with Volo­copter. This gives us the oppor­tu­ni­ty to co-cre­ate reg­u­la­tions and tech­nolo­gies with the indus­try, facil­i­tat­ing inno­va­tion to enable a future mode of trans­porta­tion for Sin­ga­pore.”

 In Octo­ber 2019, Volo­copter com­plet­ed a air taxi demon­stra­tion flight in the heart of Sin­ga­pore over the Mari­na Bay area, giv­ing observers the unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to have a sense of what Urban Air Mobil­i­ty will look like.

Lead­ing up to this flight, the com­pa­ny opened a Sin­ga­pore office, con­duct­ed exten­sive flight tests, and worked close­ly with sev­er­al key stake­hold­ers, such as the Min­istry of Trans­port (MOT) and CAAS, to receive the nec­es­sary per­mits to fly then.