Lilium designates future Orlando vertiport as key network hub in Florida for its eVTOL aircraft operations

Lil­i­um has announced its des­ig­na­tion of the future Orlan­do Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (MCO) ver­ti­port as a net­work hub for Lil­i­um Jet oper­a­tors in cen­tral Flori­da.

In an announce­ment made today (Thurs­day), Lil­i­um also announced its sup­port for Flori­da House Bill 981, which pro­pos­es the des­ig­na­tion of the Greater Orlan­do Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty (GOAA) as the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) test site for Flori­da.

Sebastien Borel, Chief Com­mer­cial Offi­cer at Lil­i­um, said: “We are thrilled about the pro­posed advanced avi­a­tion cen­ter at Orlan­do Inter­na­tion­al Air­port and com­mend Orlan­do for its ded­i­ca­tion and vision to advanc­ing AAM. Build­ing a ver­ti­port at the major-hub air­port will ulti­mate­ly enhance region­al mobil­i­ty by increas­ing pas­sen­ger access and con­nec­tiv­i­ty while allow­ing mul­ti­ple oper­a­tors to use the facil­i­ty and share in the cost.” 

Lil­i­um also announced its sup­port today for Flori­da House Bill 981, which des­ig­nates MCO as the AAM test site in Flori­da and enables ver­ti­port per­mit­ting in the state ensur­ing that Flori­da is pre­pared for AAM.

Lil­i­um has worked direct­ly with HB 981 bill spon­sor State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Doug Bank­son, Dis­trict 39, and Flori­da House Trans­porta­tion & Modals Sub­com­mit­tee chair State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Fiona McFar­land, Dis­trict 73, to ensure Flori­da is a leader in the nation and adapt­ing pol­i­cy to meet the needs of Lil­i­um and their com­mer­cial part­ners. 

Borel added: “We appre­ci­ate the work of Chair Fiona McFar­land and State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Doug Bankson’s efforts in this bill to ensure Flori­da remains a leader in AAM. These strides rein­force our deci­sion to announce cen­tral Flori­da as a key launch region for the Lil­i­um Jet and align with our long­stand­ing com­mit­ment to acces­si­ble, sus­tain­able trans­porta­tion.

“Solid­i­fy­ing the Greater Orlan­do region as a test bed for AAM demon­strates the state’s com­mit­ment to pro­gress­ing region­al mobil­i­ty and advanc­ing avi­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy.” 

Lil­i­um has been a dri­ving force for AAM activ­i­ty in Flori­da, announc­ing with the City of Orlan­do and Lake Nona the country’s first urban and region­al air mobil­i­ty net­work in 2020. As the part­ners engaged in the work to bring the first full-scale eVTOL ver­ti­port to fruition, all par­ties agreed that the best loca­tion would be a ver­ti­port on air­port prop­er­ty. 

The air­port city of MCO and Lake Nona will be a piv­otal hub for AAM oper­a­tions in Flori­da. Sit­u­at­ed in the cen­tre of the state, the net­work is strate­gi­cal­ly placed to cater to the near­ly 80 mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors that the region attracts.

Cou­pled with a world-class air­port and the rapid­ly expand­ing com­mu­ni­ty of Lake Nona, the air­port city is expect­ed to become a true mul­ti­modal hub for all forms of trans­porta­tion. 

Lil­i­um will con­tin­ue work­ing with the Greater Orlan­do Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty, Lake Nona, and the City of Orlan­do to sup­port this project.

Addi­tion­al­ly, Lil­i­um will con­tin­ue work­ing with state offi­cials and the bill spon­sors to sup­port the ver­ti­port leg­is­la­tion that allows for the safe and effi­cient approvals of ver­ti­ports through­out Flori­da with the appro­pri­ate com­mu­ni­ty input. 

The cen­tral Flori­da net­work will form part of Lilium’s vision of bring­ing region­al air mobil­i­ty to loca­tions across the globe. The Lil­i­um Jet air­craft is being pur­pose-built for region­al trips to enable the con­nec­tion of entire regions that is expect­ed to cre­ate pos­i­tive eco­nom­ic impact for cities and their res­i­dents, as well as increased access to indus­try, cul­ture, and nature.