VPorts to build and operate first vertiport in UAE

VPorts is to build and oper­ate the first ver­ti­port at Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Air­port in the UAE as a world-class glob­al AAM hub. VPorts’ ini­tial growth strat­e­gy is based on region­al trans­porta­tion of goods, tourism, patients, and organs for trans­plant and med­ical equip­ment.

The ver­ti­port will be estab­lished on a 10,000 square metre site and will focus on loca­tions that opti­mise mul­ti­modal trans­porta­tion con­nec­tiv­i­ty, includ­ing RAK, Dubai South, Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi and Shar­jah.

VPorts pres­i­dent and founder Dr Fethi Chebil said: ‘‘We are excit­ed to build the first UAE ver­ti­port with the sup­port of the Depart­ment of Civ­il Avi­a­tion at RAK Air­port.

“We look for­ward to col­lab­o­rat­ing with every Emi­rate to define the loca­tion of ded­i­cat­ed ver­ti­ports as well as safe­ty and secu­ri­ty reg­u­la­tions, flight cor­ri­dors, urban inte­gra­tion and busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment for this impor­tant under­tak­ing.

“With our part­ners, we aim to fos­ter glob­al growth in the inter­na­tion­al AAM indus­try and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of eVTOL air­craft.”

His High­ness Salem bin Sul­tan Al Qasi­mi, chair­man of the Depart­ment of Civ­il Avi­a­tion at RAK con­tin­ued: “This project is aligned with RAK’s Ener­gy Effi­cien­cy and Renew­able Ener­gy Strat­e­gy 2040 with the vision of His High­ness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasi­mi, Ruler of the Emi­rate of RAK, to achieve at least a 30% sav­ings in elec­tric­i­ty con­sump­tion and a 20% con­tri­bu­tion from renew­able ener­gy by 2040.”

In Decem­ber 2022, VPorts signed a 25-year exclu­sive lease agree­ment with the Mohammed bin Rashid Aero­space Hub (MBRAH) to estab­lish an inte­gra­tor cen­tre on a 37,000 square metre site with­in Dubai South.

VPorts to cre­ate world’s first AAM inte­gra­tor cen­tre in Dubai

Con­struc­tion will start in 2023 and is expect­ed to con­duct its first flight test in 2024 with sup­port from the UAE Gen­er­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty (GCAA). VPorts will deploy its Ver­ti­port Oper­a­tion Con­trol Cen­tre (VOCC) as part of the AAM inte­gra­tor world cen­tre in Dubai.

The VOCC will have the capac­i­ty to man­age air traf­fic inte­gra­tion and set up com­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­to­cols between eVTOLs, ver­ti­ports and Air Nav­i­ga­tion Ser­vice Providers (ANSP).

VPorts will work with an extend­ed part­ner net­work to engage with key strate­gic exper­tise, includ­ing eVTOL man­u­fac­tur­ing, flight sim­u­la­tion and train­ing, reg­u­la­tors, air nav­i­ga­tion ser­vice providers, tech­nol­o­gy ser­vice providers, oper­a­tors, elec­tric charg­ing man­u­fac­tur­ers and urban plan­ners.