Bluenest by Globalvia and Helibravo Aviação sign partnership to bring eVTOL operations to Portugal

Heli­bra­vo Avi­ação and Bluen­est by Glob­alvia will work togeth­er to pro­mote Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty in Por­tu­gal, after announc­ing a part­ner­ship at last week’s Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Sum­mit in the coun­try’s cap­i­tal, Lis­bon.

In a press released issued yes­ter­day (Wednes­day), the aim of this col­lab­o­ra­tion is to co-devel­op the first net­work of ver­ti­ports that will launch Urban Air Mobil­i­ty in key loca­tions in Por­tu­gal, for both pas­sen­gers and car­go. Addi­tion­al­ly, both com­pa­nies will explore future com­mer­cial oper­a­tions in ver­ti­ports for air shut­tle, panoram­ic tours, and emer­gency ser­vices.

The devel­op­ment of this col­lab­o­ra­tion, aligned strat­e­gy and pilot projects, will also allow the oppor­tu­ni­ty to eval­u­ate and val­i­date the tran­si­tion from con­ven­tion­al heli­copter flights to advanced air mobil­i­ty with eVTOL air­craft.

The goal is to demon­strate the fea­si­bil­i­ty, safe­ty and afford­abil­i­ty of UAM/AAM projects, includ­ing how the tra­di­tion­al heli­ports infra­struc­ture will evolve into ver­ti­ports.

Jose Rodriguez, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of Bluen­est by Glob­alvia, said: “By join­ing forces with Heli­bra­vo, we are con­fi­dent that we can accel­er­ate the devel­op­ment of urban air mobil­i­ty in Por­tu­gal. Our part­ner­ship will make it eas­i­er to over­come chal­lenges and lever­age our col­lec­tive exper­tise, and we look for­ward to deliv­er­ing a new era of mobil­i­ty to the region.”

Opti­mis­ing the ser­vice to pas­sen­gers and car­go in ver­ti­ports was key for Heli­bra­vo to devel­op a joint ven­ture project with Bluen­est by Glob­alvia. The objec­tive is to test the first designs and sys­tems devel­oped in a real oper­a­tional envi­ron­ment to gath­er rel­e­vant data in Por­tu­gal as a bench­mark, includ­ing demo test flights with an eVTOL air­craft.

In mak­ing this announce­ment, Heli­bra­vo has said the aware­ness of the impor­tance of find­ing alter­na­tives and evolv­ing from heli­copter to eVTOL flights for Urban Air Mobil­i­ty, ensur­ing safe­ty, effi­cien­cy, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and oper­abil­i­ty, is para­mount.

João Bra­vo, CEO of Heli­bra­vo Avi­ação, added: “The tran­si­tion from our cur­rent busi­ness mod­el with heli­copters oper­a­tions to sus­tain­able mobil­i­ty and UAM oper­a­tions of eVTOLs has been our vision as a nat­ur­al evo­lu­tion of Heli­bra­vo.

“The strate­gic col­lab­o­ra­tion with Bluen­est is para­mount to ensure our joint mis­sion to pop­u­late Por­tu­gal with ver­ti­ports, ensur­ing safe­ty, expe­ri­ence, and effi­cien­cy in the required infra­struc­ture.”

Heli­bra­vo is described as Por­tu­gal’s mar­ket leader in pas­sen­ger trans­porta­tion with heli­copters, hav­ing expe­ri­ence in cer­ti­fy­ing and man­ag­ing heli­port infra­struc­ture. The com­pa­ny employs Por­tuguese tech­ni­cians, engi­neers and pilots and man­age its own fleet and oper­a­tions.

Heli­bra­vo Avi­ação also offers tourist heli­copter flights in Lis­bon and Por­to, as well as in oth­er aer­i­al work oper­a­tions such as fire­fight­ing, Search and Res­cue and Spe­cialised Oper­a­tions. It has a nation­al­ly renowned heli­copter pilot school.

Bluen­est is a com­pa­ny of the Glob­alvia Group devel­op­ing urban air mobil­i­ty world­wide. Glob­alvia is a world leader in man­ag­ing trans­port infra­struc­ture con­ces­sions and mobil­i­ty ser­vices, designed to pro­mote the sus­tain­able devel­op­ment of the com­mu­ni­ties. The com­pa­ny man­ages 21 high­ways and sev­en rail­ways, high speed rail and the largest bus and train oper­a­tor in the Unit­ed King­dom.