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Skyportz and Sea World Helicopters launch partnership to bring eVTOL aircraft to Australia’s Gold Coast

Sky­portz, Sea World Heli­copters, Secure Park­ing and Gold Coast May­or Tom Tate are join­ing forces to make SE Queens­land the cen­tre of the emerg­ing elec­tric air taxi indus­try in Aus­tralia, in time for the Bris­bane Olympics.

Back in Jan­u­ary, Sky­portz announced a part­ner­ship with Secure Park­ing to deliv­er up to 400 land­ing sites for eVTOL air­craft in Aus­tralia.

Speak­ing at the Aus­tralian Asso­ci­a­tion for Uncrewed Sys­tems in Can­ber­ra, Clem New­ton-Brown, CEO of Sky­portz, said: “We have been accu­mu­lat­ing sites in Aus­tralia since 2018 and we now have over 400 prop­er­ty part­ners ready to build a Sky­portz net­work.

“Many are in South­ern Queens­land and we intend to explore oppor­tu­ni­ties to con­nect new ver­ti­port sites with Olympic Games venues, in part­ner­ship with local and State Gov­ern­ment.

“The Sea World Heli­copters part­ner­ship means we have an oper­a­tional part­ner now on the Gold Coast to acti­vate our ver­ti­port net­work”.

John Orr-Camp­bell, CEO of Sea World Heli­copters said: “We intend to be at the fore­front of the indus­try as it morphs into clean­er and qui­eter elec­tric propul­sion. 

“We have exist­ing heli­copter land­ing infra­struc­ture on the Gold Coast which we can acti­vate with elec­tric eVTOL air­craft as soon as they become avail­able.”

In Octo­ber 2021, Sky­portz revealed the first of its infra­struc­ture for eVTOL air taxis in Aus­tralia will be built at the country’s Advanced Man­u­fac­tur­ing Cen­tre of Excel­lence (AAMCE) in More­ton Bay, Bris­bane with­in the next two years, the first in a planned net­work to ser­vice those attend­ing the 2032 Olympic Games.

The announce­ment builds on the pre­vi­ous part­ner­ship in Vic­to­ria between Sky­portz and Microflite heli­copters, as well as with Secure Park­ing, which has over 50 sites in the Gold Coast and Bris­bane regions.

“We look for­ward to work­ing with Sky­portz and Sea World Heli­copters to see how our car park­ing sites might be utilised for an air taxi net­work in the future”, said Peter Anson, CEO of Secure Park­ing. 

Gold Coast May­or Tom Tate added: “We are push­ing hard to be seen as a city of inno­va­tion, and I can see a place for Skyportz’s oper­a­tions not only in our city but across the SE Queens­land region. 

“Over three mil­lion peo­ple reside between our major cities, but we attract more than 13 mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors so the mar­ket is cer­tain­ly there for inno­v­a­tive trans­port solu­tions like this.’’

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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