China: “Urban-Air Port, Hangzhou Starports Tech Announce Collaboration for Vertiport Development”

UK-based Urban-Air Port (UAP), a pio­neer in ver­ti­port infra­struc­ture design and devel­op­ment, and Hangzhou Star­ports Tech, a Chi­nese inno­va­tor in ver­ti­port man­u­fac­tur­ing and oper­a­tions, announced this week a col­lab­o­ra­tion to devel­op such infra­struc­ture across Chi­na, reports a press release.

Their first project will be a joint design and deliv­ery of UAP’s AirOne ver­ti­port mod­el in Qin­j­dao, Hangzhou & Hainan Chi­na.

The release explains, “Unveiled by Andrea Wu, CEO of Urban-Air Port, at the Asia-Pacif­ic Low Alti­tude Econ­o­my and Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Con­fer­ence (ALMAC) at the Hong Kong Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, this col­lab­o­ra­tion posi­tions UAP and Star­ports to shape the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) rev­o­lu­tion by cap­i­tal­is­ing on China’s Low Alti­tude Econ­o­my (LAE), esti­mat­ed to be a USD1 tril­lion total address­able mar­ket by 2030, encom­pass­ing both pas­sen­ger trans­port and car­go logis­tics.”

Andrea Wu (left) and Ricky Sand­hu (right) from UAP with Hao­ran Dong Co-Founder of Start­ports (mid­dle)

Wu com­ment­ed, “This part­ner­ship is a game-chang­er for Urban-Air Port and the glob­al AAM indus­try. By col­lab­o­rat­ing with Star­ports, we are not only enter­ing the largest mar­ket for ver­ti­ports but also shap­ing the future of urban air mobil­i­ty and car­go logis­tics glob­al­ly.” 

She con­tin­ued, “Our Air-One ver­ti­ports, com­bined with Star­ports’ local exper­tise and man­u­fac­tur­ing capa­bil­i­ties, will deliv­er sus­tain­able, effi­cient infra­struc­ture to meet China’s ambi­tious goals.”

The release con­tin­ues, “Under a Let­ter of Intent (LOI), UAP will deploy its award-win­ning Air-One mod­u­lar and scal­able ver­ti­port tech­nol­o­gy to design and deliv­er com­pact, effi­cient ver­ti­port solu­tions tai­lored to China’s reg­u­la­to­ry and envi­ron­men­tal require­ments.”

It adds, “These ver­ti­ports will sup­port autonomous car­go drones and pas­sen­ger air taxis, address­ing the diverse needs of urban con­nec­tiv­i­ty and logis­tics.” 

Star­ports, head­quar­tered in Shang­hai with oper­a­tions in Hangzhou and man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ties in Zhe­jiang, will serve as UAP’s exclu­sive devel­op­ment part­ner in Chi­na, mar­ket­ing and pro­mot­ing its ver­ti­port solu­tions to secure projects. 

The com­pa­ny will also pro­vide local design, engi­neer­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing sup­port, lever­ag­ing its facil­i­ties to fab­ri­cate and install ver­ti­ports, reduc­ing costs and enhanc­ing scal­a­bil­i­ty. 

Star­ports’ pro­pri­etary heliport/vertiport automa­tion man­age­ment sys­tem will be offered as a first-option solu­tion to opti­mise oper­a­tional effi­cien­cy for both pas­sen­ger and car­go oper­a­tions.

Front-fac­ing pic of Haix­in­sha Ver­ti­port, in Guangzhou Chi­na, recent­ly opened and mod­elled on UAP’s Air-One

Hongfei Zhang, Pres­i­dent of Star­ports, com­ment­ed, “Col­lab­o­rat­ing with Urban-Air Port enables us to com­bine our oper­a­tional and man­u­fac­tur­ing strengths  along with its cut­ting-edge ver­ti­port tech­nol­o­gy. We will accel­er­ate ver­ti­port deploy­ment across Chi­na, sup­port­ing the nation’s vision for a Low Alti­tude Econ­o­my that inte­grates pas­sen­ger and car­go solu­tions.”

Adding, “Togeth­er, we’ll deliv­er inno­v­a­tive infra­struc­ture that sets a glob­al bench­mark for AAM and logis­tics.”

The col­lab­o­ra­tion is to focus on key activ­i­ties, includ­ing the joint design and engi­neer­ing of ver­ti­ports for high-pro­file loca­tions such as Shang­hai, Shen­zhen, Wuxi, Guangzhou, and Zigong (Cheng­du). Star­ports will work close­ly with UAP to ensure com­pli­ance with the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion of Chi­na (CAAC) and oth­er reg­u­la­to­ry bod­ies, while also explor­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to export UAP’s ver­ti­port solu­tions to oth­er Asia-Pacif­ic mar­kets and beyond.

Ini­tial projects will tar­get scenic areas in Guang­dong Province, where Star­ports plans to deploy dozens of ver­ti­ports mod­elled after UAP’s Air-One design, ide­al for tourism, urban con­nec­tiv­i­ty, and car­go logis­tics appli­ca­tions such as last-mile deliv­ery.

The part­ner­ship will also include joint mar­ket­ing efforts, tech­ni­cal knowl­edge shar­ing and for Star­ports to rec­om­mend UAP to Chi­nese investors and stake­hold­ers to ful­fil the demand to meet LAE expec­ta­tions.  

By lever­ag­ing agree­ments with lead­ing Chi­nese eVTOL man­u­fac­tur­ers like EHang and Aut­oFlight, as well as real-estate devel­op­ers, the col­lab­o­ra­tion aims to ensure inte­gra­tion of ver­ti­port infra­struc­ture with oper­a­tional eVTOL fleets for both pas­sen­ger and car­go appli­ca­tions.

Air-One Coven­try, UK built in 2022 by UAP show­cas­ing inte­grat­ed stands, hangar, MRO, pas­sen­ger lounges includ­ing a cafe, car­go pro­cess­ing cen­tre, com­mand and con­trol and Ver­ti­cal Air­field FATO sys­tem

China’s Low Alti­tude Econ­o­my is set to rede­fine urban aer­i­al trans­porta­tion, with pro­jec­tions indi­cat­ing the need for thou­sands of ver­ti­ports over the next decade to sup­port eVTOL air taxis and autonomous deliv­ery drones for pas­sen­ger and logis­tics appli­ca­tions. 

Chi­nese OEMs includ­ing EHang, Aut­oFlight, Ver­taxi, XPeng Aero­HT, Volant Aerotech, TCab Tech and Aerofu­gia, have col­lec­tive­ly logged over 100,000 flight hours and 2.5 mil­lion miles, cement­ing China’s lead­er­ship in AAM. 

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.urbanairport.com

https://hzxcdh.en.made-in-china.com/company-Hangzhou-Star-Sea-Technology-Co-Ltd-.html

(Top image: Over­head view of Haix­in­sha Ver­ti­port in Guangzhou Chi­na mod­elled on UAP’s Air-One, designed and built in record time)

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