Abu Dhabi and Archer announce agreement with cross-industry stakeholders to launch first commercial electric air taxi flights

Archer has entered into a mul­ti-par­ty col­lab­o­ra­tion agree­ment with key UAE and Abu Dhabi enti­ties to advance the estab­lish­ment of elec­tric air taxi oper­a­tions in the coun­try.

The agree­ment aims to for­malise the coop­er­a­tion between UAE and Abu Dhabi stake­hold­ers in prepa­ra­tion for the launch of the first com­mer­cial eVTOL air­craft flight.

It was signed under the aus­pices of the Smart and Autonomous Sys­tems Coun­cil (SASC), in the pres­ence of His High­ness Sheikh Ham­dan bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chair­man of the Pres­i­den­tial Court for Spe­cial Affairs.

Nikhil Goel, Chief Com­mer­cial Offi­cer of Archer Avi­a­tion, empha­sized the sig­nif­i­cance of the con­sor­tium: “The UAE is a cor­ner­stone of Archer’s future, and these part­ner­ships are key to mak­ing that future a real­i­ty.

“The com­pre­hen­sive sup­port from our part­ners, com­bined with Abu Dhabi’s for­ward-think­ing approach to next-gen trans­porta­tion, cre­ates an ide­al envi­ron­ment for launch­ing Mid­night.”

His Excel­len­cy Badr Al-Ola­ma, Direc­tor Gen­er­al of the Abu Dhabi Invest­ment Office (ADIO), added: “We are pleased to see lead­ing mem­bers of Abu Dhabi’s avi­a­tion sec­tor col­lab­o­rat­ing with Archer to sup­port the launch of air taxis in the emi­rate.

“This part­ner­ship marks a major mile­stone in the efforts led by Abu Dhabi’s Smart and Autonomous Sys­tems Coun­cil to accel­er­ate smart and advanced mobil­i­ty solu­tions, fur­ther solid­i­fy­ing the emirate’s posi­tion as a glob­al leader in smart and autonomous vehi­cles.”

The agreement’s goal is for Archer Avi­a­tion to be the first man­u­fac­tur­er of eVTOL air­craft in the Mid­dle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as well as the first to launch com­mer­cial fly­ing taxi oper­a­tions in the Emi­rate.

The Abu Dhabi Invest­ment Office, a key sig­na­to­ry to the agree­ment, will facil­i­tate coor­di­na­tion among Abu Dhabi enti­ties in prepa­ra­tion for launch of com­mer­cial oper­a­tions.

Form­ing a robust ecosys­tem for eVTOL devel­op­ment, oth­er par­ties to the agree­ment include Abu Dhabi Air­ports (AD Air­ports), Fal­con Avi­a­tion Ser­vices, Eti­had Avi­a­tion Train­ing, the Gen­er­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty (GCAA), Glob­al Air Nav­i­ga­tion Ser­vices (GANS), Glob­al Aero­space Logis­tics (GAL) and the Inte­grat­ed Trans­port Cen­tre (Abu Dhabi Mobil­i­ty). 

The col­lab­o­ra­tion out­lines the roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties of each par­ty and lays the foun­da­tion for defin­i­tive agree­ments between Archer and the com­mer­cial stake­hold­ers. 

The part­ner­ship rep­re­sents a strong align­ment between lead­ing indus­try enti­ties, and fol­lows a pre­vi­ous col­lab­o­ra­tion agree­ment with the ADIO to accel­er­ate air taxi com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion. 

Direc­tor Gen­er­al of the GCAA, His Excel­len­cy Saif Mohammed Al Suwai­di, said: “We are com­mit­ted to launch­ing elec­tric air taxis safe­ly in the UAE. Today’s con­sor­tium announce­ment show­cas­es the impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion across the country’s pre­em­i­nent avi­a­tion enti­ties in order to host Archer’s Mid­night in the region next year.”

Man­ag­ing Direc­tor and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of Abu Dhabi Air­ports, Ele­na Sor­li­ni, added: “We are proud to sup­port this pio­neer­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant step towards sus­tain­able urban mobil­i­ty in Abu Dhabi.

“This part­ner­ship rein­forces our com­mit­ment to inno­va­tion and posi­tions the emi­rate as a glob­al leader in next-gen trans­porta­tion, ensur­ing seam­less con­nec­tiv­i­ty for future pas­sen­gers.”

Eti­had Avi­a­tion Train­ing CEO, Cap­tain Pao­lo La Cava, com­ment­ed: “Abu Dhabi con­tin­ues to lead the way in safe avi­a­tion inno­va­tion, and we look for­ward to work­ing with Archer to train pilots and oth­er avi­a­tion pro­fes­sion­als for their elec­tric air taxis, which we hope will car­ry pas­sen­gers to and from many air­ports and future ver­ti­ports in the region in the near future.”

The UAE Gen­er­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty (GCAA) has been work­ing close­ly with Archer, most­ly recent­ly through the orga­ni­za­tion of a week-long work­shop at Archer’s head­quar­ters and flight test facil­i­ty in Novem­ber 2024.

At this work­shop, the two worked togeth­er to estab­lish the nec­es­sary reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work to cer­ti­fy Archer’s Mid­night air­craft and approve com­mer­cial air taxi oper­a­tions in the UAE.

Main pho­to cred­it: Busi­ness Wire