Lilium and Ferrovial announce plans to create vertiport network linking major cities across Florida

Lil­i­um and infra­struc­ture oper­a­tor Fer­rovial have signed a frame­work agree­ment to devel­op a net­work of at least ten ver­ti­ports cov­er­ing strate­gic loca­tions in all major cities across Flori­da. The first loca­tion in the south of the state will be announced as soon as Spring 2021.

This new part­ner­ship will see both com­pa­nies col­lab­o­rate in the design and con­struc­tion of ver­ti­port facil­i­ties, as well as the oper­a­tion and main­te­nance for pas­sen­ger ser­vices. It comes just months after the Ger­man start­up announced its first hub loca­tion in Lake Nona, Orlan­do.

Com­ment­ing on the part­ner­ship, Daniel Wie­gand, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer and Co-founder, Lil­i­um said: “Our part­ner­ship with Fer­rovial to devel­op flight infra­struc­ture, is a crit­i­cal step in deliv­er­ing the poten­tial of region­al air mobil­i­ty to pro­vide high speed, afford­able, emis­sions-free trav­el to mil­lions of peo­ple.

“As we accel­er­ate our launch plans, Lil­i­um is com­mit­ted to part­ner­ing with indus­try lead­ers, bring­ing togeth­er their strengths and expe­ri­ence with our air­craft tech­nol­o­gy and pas­sen­ger ser­vice infra­struc­ture. We’re excit­ed about what we will achieve togeth­er.”

Ver­ti­ports are a key com­po­nent in real­is­ing the poten­tial of inno­va­tions of eVTOL air­craft, pro­vid­ing infra­struc­ture for land­ing, recharg­ing and tak­ing off with pas­sen­gers. The part­ner­ship between both com­pa­nies seeks to pro­vide an effi­cient and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly alter­na­tive trans­port net­work con­nect­ing loca­tions across Flori­da. 

Lil­i­um is cur­rent­ly devel­op­ing its region­al air mobil­i­ty ser­vice and design­ing its all-elec­tric Lil­i­um Jet air­craft. The full-scale five-seater demon­stra­tor first flew in May 2019 and the com­pa­ny expects to begin launch­ing its ser­vice in cities around the world as ear­ly as 2025.

Dr. Remo Ger­ber, Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer at Lil­i­um, said: “Our strat­e­gy to bring high-speed trans­porta­tion net­works to an entire region is being brought to life in Flori­da, and Fer­rovial is the ide­al part­ner with their unri­valled exper­tise in air­port con­struc­tion and oper­a­tions around the globe.

“Near­ly all 20 mil­lion Florid­i­ans will live with­in 30 min­utes of our ver­ti­ports and the 140 mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors to the Sun­shine State will have a high-speed option avail­able to trav­el to their des­ti­na­tions.” 

Fer­rovial is regard­ed as a lead­ing infra­struc­ture investor and oper­a­tor, and cur­rent­ly man­ages $10 bil­lion in assets in the Unit­ed States. Fer­rovial Air­ports have been part of the avi­a­tion indus­try since 1998 and have more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence invest­ing, devel­op­ing and oper­at­ing 33 air­ports around the world.

The cur­rent port­fo­lio in the Unit­ed King­dom con­sists of four air­ports. With a 25 per cent stake, Fer­rovial is the largest share­hold­er and indus­tri­al part­ner in Heathrow Air­port, one of the busiest air­ports in the world. It also holds a 50 per cent stake in Glas­gow, Aberdeen and Southamp­ton air­ports.

Jorge Gil, CEO of Fer­rovial Air­ports, said: “We are delight­ed to part­ner with Lil­i­um in this big step towards new ways of achiev­ing air mobil­i­ty and sus­tain­able infra­struc­ture. Our part­ner­ship will deliv­er a unique­ly dif­fer­ent end-to-end pas­sen­ger expe­ri­ence.”

Rafael Fer­nan­dez, Fer­rovial Inno­va­tion Direc­tor, added: “At Fer­rovial, we are deter­mined to con­cep­tu­alise, design and build the future of trans­port and mobil­i­ty infra­struc­tures. In this case, we part­ner with Lil­i­um, one of the lead­ing com­pa­nies in this nascent urban air mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem to deliv­er an inno­v­a­tive mode of trans­port that will short­en dis­tances and improve qual­i­ty of life for cit­i­zens.”