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Australia: Skyports and Wagner Corporation to explore vertiport opportunities and build momentum in Queensland

Sky­ports Infra­struc­ture and Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion have part­nered to explore ver­ti­port devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in the state of Queens­land, Aus­tralia.

The agree­ment fol­lows a recent announce­ment between Wisk and Sky­ports to iden­ti­fy an Entry-into-Ser­vice (EIS) net­work for Wisk’s autonomous Gen 6 air­craft in the South East Queens­land (SEQ) region.

The part­ner­ship between Sky­ports and Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion will explore ver­ti­port devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in strate­gic loca­tions around Bris­bane and the wider Queens­land area. Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion will iden­ti­fy suit­able real estate assets from its port­fo­lio, while Sky­ports will eval­u­ate these sites for design, oper­a­tional, and com­mer­cial fea­si­bil­i­ty.

Addi­tion­al­ly, Sky­ports and Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion will also joint­ly work on engage­ment efforts to sup­port the devel­op­ment of Australia’s AAM ecosys­tem.

Lever­ag­ing Sky­ports’ demon­stra­ble indus­try exper­tise and Wagner’s local knowl­edge and oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence, the part­ners will engage key stake­hold­ers, includ­ing state gov­ern­ment, city coun­cils, plan­ning author­i­ties and reg­u­la­tors.

Yun-Yuan Tay, Head of Asia-Pacif­ic at Sky­ports Infra­struc­ture, said: “We’re com­mit­ted to play­ing an inte­gral role in enabling air taxi ser­vices across Queens­land and the wider Aus­tralian mar­ket.

“Our part­ner­ship with Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion brings essen­tial local knowl­edge in air­port devel­op­ment, con­struc­tion, and real estate, which, com­bined with our ver­ti­port infra­struc­ture expe­ri­ence, will catal­yse the launch of air taxi oper­a­tions. With our exist­ing part­ner­ship with the lead­ing autonomous EVTOL com­pa­ny Wisk, AAM is heat­ing up in Aus­tralia!”

Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion is a fam­i­ly-owned Aus­tralian Com­pa­ny with a focus on prop­er­ty, infra­struc­ture and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment.

Dat­ing back to 1856, the Wag­n­er fam­i­ly is con­sid­ered a major con­trib­u­tor to the devel­op­ment of Region­al Queens­land and the wider Queens­land econ­o­my.

As part of its efforts with Sky­ports, the com­pa­ny will col­lab­o­rate with prospec­tive eVTOL OEMs — includ­ing Wisk — to iden­ti­fy opti­mal loca­tions and sup­port their air taxi oper­a­tions across the Queens­land region. 

One exam­ple is the Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion-owned Toowoom­ba Well­camp Air­port (WTB), where Sky­ports and Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion will con­duct fea­si­bil­i­ty stud­ies to assess the poten­tial for devel­op­ing a ver­ti­port test­bed and future per­ma­nent infra­struc­ture.

Con­struct­ed in 2014, WTB is Aus­trali­a’s first pri­vate­ly fund­ed pub­lic air­port. It was built by Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion to enhance region­al and nation­al pas­sen­ger trans­port. Locat­ed approx­i­mate­ly 90 miles from Bris­bane, the air­port presents a sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ty for the devel­op­ment of a region­al air taxi ver­ti­port. 

John Wag­n­er, Chair­man at Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion, added: “It is vital to start work on eVTOL infra­struc­ture to have enough sites approved and oper­a­tional in the lead up to the launch of air taxi ser­vices and ahead of the 2032 Olympics.

“Our part­ner­ship with Sky­ports is an impor­tant step towards this goal. In addi­tion, Wag­n­er Cor­po­ra­tion intends to build ver­ti­port and man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ties at the Toowoom­ba Well­camp Air­port to allow all OEM oper­a­tors access to a site for the con­struc­tion and test­ing of eVTOLs for the Asia Pacif­ic Region.”

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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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