Japan: Joby, ANA Collaborate with Nomura Real Estate for Vertiport Development

Joby Avi­a­tion announced late last week, a col­lab­o­ra­tion with All Nip­pon Air­ways (ANA) and Nomu­ra Real Estate Devel­op­ment (NRE), to devel­op ver­ti­port infra­struc­ture for Japan, reports a press release. ANA is cur­rent­ly the only Japan­ese air­line to have achieved exclu­sive 5‑Star sta­tus for the 10th con­sec­u­tive year and NRE is a lead­ing real estate com­pa­ny in the coun­try.

The three part­ners aim to joint­ly explore the design, loca­tion, oper­a­tion and financ­ing of ver­ti­port loca­tions which will serve as the back­bone of future com­mer­cial air taxi ser­vices in Japan.

The release explains, “The part­ners will pri­mar­i­ly focus on loca­tions in the met­ro­pol­i­tan areas such as Tokyo, expand­ing over time to include numer­ous urban areas across greater Japan. Joby recent­ly became a tech­ni­cal advi­sor to the Tokyo Bay eSG Project, led by NRE and spon­sored by the Tokyo Met­ro­pol­i­tan Gov­ern­ment, which will demon­strate var­i­ous mul­ti-modal mobil­i­ty solu­tions includ­ing a float­ing land­ing port in the Tokyo Bay.” 

It con­tin­ues, “The part­ners will also work with a wide range of local stake­hold­ers to intro­duce the ben­e­fits of the tech­nol­o­gy and sup­port com­mu­ni­ty accep­tance of air taxi ser­vices.”

(Cred­it: Aki­habara News)

Joby and ANA first col­lab­o­rat­ed in 2022 to bring eVTOL ser­vices to Japan. Both are mem­bers of Japan’s Pub­lic-Pri­vate Con­fer­ence for the Future Air Mobil­i­ty Rev­o­lu­tion, estab­lished by the Min­istry of Econ­o­my, Trade and Indus­try to accel­er­ate the adop­tion of aer­i­al ride-shar­ing in the coun­try.

And with eyes on the Osa­ka Expo in 2025, last year also saw Joby announce it had applied for val­i­da­tion of its FAA type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, once received, with the Japan Civ­il Avi­a­tion Bureau (JCAB). The U.S‑based eVTOL com­pa­ny con­tin­ues to work close­ly with reg­u­la­to­ry offi­cials from JCAB, to pre­pare for com­mer­cial oper­a­tions in the coun­try.

The Joby share price has risen around 5% on the news (close on Fri­day USD6.57).

For more infor­ma­tion

www.jobyaviation.com

https://www.ana.co.jp/group/en/

https://www.nomura-re.co.jp/english/

(Top image: Joby Avi­a­tion)