Ferrovial partners with Milligan to develop locations for UK’s first vertiports

Ferrovial’s air­ports divi­sion has part­nered with Mil­li­gan to iden­ti­fy and devel­op sites to launch urban air mobil­i­ty oper­a­tions in the Unit­ed King­dom. The col­lab­o­ra­tion will advance the com­pa­ny’s plan to design, build and oper­ate ver­ti­ports.

The part­ners will iden­ti­fy demand-rich loca­tions, select poten­tial sites, and car­ry out assess­ment cri­te­ria to deter­mine the via­bil­i­ty of each site for eVTOL oper­a­tions. They will work along with AECOM and Lich­fields act­ing as plan­ning advi­sors.

The part­ner­ship was announced at a spe­cial event host­ed by UK Real Estate Invest­ment & Infra­struc­ture Forum (UKREi­iF) in Leeds in May, where Fer­rovial Ver­ti­ports UK and EMEA man­ag­ing direc­tor, Brad Miller, and Mil­li­gan exec­u­tive chair­man John Mil­li­gan intro­duced their approach to engag­ing com­mu­ni­ties and core stake­hold­ers in the future of air mobil­i­ty.

“With a 70-year his­to­ry of devel­op­ing trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture that helps com­mu­ni­ties flour­ish and grow, Fer­rovial is proud to play a lead­ing role in trans­form­ing the future of urban air mobil­i­ty,” said Miller.

Har­ris added: “UKREi­iF has been the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to unveil the details of our part­ner­ship and plans going for­ward, and with an audi­ence of local author­i­ties, cen­tral gov­ern­ment, devel­op­ers, and landown­ers, we are look­ing into the loca­tions of the UK’s first Ver­ti­ports.”

Fer­rovial and Mil­li­gan were joined by Dominic Jack­son, mar­ket devel­op­ment man­ag­er at Ver­ti­cal Aero­space, a man­u­fac­tur­er of eVTOLs and one of Fer­rovial Ver­ti­port’s key part­ners.

Imper­a­tives for the loca­tions being sought are that they are com­pat­i­ble with air­space require­ments, are at least 4,000 square metres with con­nec­tion to util­i­ties, and avoid res­i­den­tial or noise-sen­si­tive areas. Sites can be locat­ed on the ground and on top of exist­ing build­ings, such as rooftops or car parks, with design and fit-out costs cov­ered.

Mil­li­gan and Fer­rovial are now in active dis­cus­sions with local author­i­ties, landown­ers, and asset own­ers in strate­gic UK loca­tions that align with Fer­rovial Ver­ti­ports’ demand mod­el.

Last month, Fer­rovial Ver­ti­ports appoint­ed Kirk Hotelling as senior vice pres­i­dent of real estate and devel­op­ment where he will lead glob­al site selec­tion, nego­ti­a­tions and con­struc­tion for the devel­op­ment of the company’s planned ver­ti­port net­works.

Fer­rovial Ver­ti­ports Appoints Kirk Hotelling as senior real estate and devel­op­ment VP