GALLERY: DXV Vertiport in Dubai Now 60 Per Cent Complete, On Course to Open For Flights Next Year

Sky­ports Infra­struc­ture and Dubai Roads & Trans­port Author­i­ty (RTA) have con­duct­ed the cer­e­mo­ni­al ‘top­ping-out’ cer­e­mo­ny of the DXV ver­ti­port, which has now reached its high­est point.

Locat­ed adja­cent to Dubai Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (DXB) and now 60 per cent com­plete, con­struc­tion is cur­rent­ly run­ning on sched­ule and planned to be com­plet­ed in Q1 2026.

Once open, the ver­ti­port will cater to flights with Joby Aviation’s S4 eVTOL air­craft, with com­mer­cial ser­vices planned next year. The ver­ti­port will be the cen­tral node of Sky­ports’ and RTA’s Dubai Ver­ti­port Net­work, with fur­ther net­work nodes in col­lab­o­ra­tion with dif­fer­ent devel­op­ers in Dubai.

Designed for high capac­i­ty, the facil­i­ty will being able to cater for 42,000 air­craft move­ments and serve approx­i­mate­ly 170,000 pas­sen­gers per year.

Ahmed Hashem Bahrozyan, CEO of Pub­lic Trans­port Agency at RTA, said: “The progress achieved at the ver­ti­port near Dubai Inter­na­tion­al Air­port marks a defin­ing moment in our jour­ney toward launch­ing the world’s first aer­i­al taxi ser­vice.

“This mile­stone reflects Dubai’s com­mit­ment to trans­form­ing mobil­i­ty through inno­va­tion, effi­cien­cy, and seam­less inte­gra­tion across all modes of trans­porta­tion. Our objec­tive is not only to intro­duce a new mode of trans­port, but to enhance the cus­tomer expe­ri­ence, offer­ing faster, safer, and more seam­less jour­neys across the city.

He added: “With the sup­port of our part­ners, and under the guid­ance of our lead­er­ship, we are devel­op­ing an advanced mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem that strength­ens Dubai’s posi­tion as a glob­al pio­neer in future trans­port.”

The facil­i­ty fea­tures two take-off and land­ing areas, along­side all the tech­nolo­gies and facil­i­ties to accom­mo­date eVTOL air­craft flights, such as fast-charg­ing infra­struc­ture and safe­ty equip­ment spec­i­fied to the high­est glob­al avi­a­tion stan­dards. It can also accom­mo­date con­ven­tion­al heli­copter traf­fic.

The ter­mi­nal spans four floors with a foot­print of 3,100m², hous­ing the main pas­sen­ger ter­mi­nal along­side cen­tral oper­a­tions for the ver­ti­port. The pas­sen­ger ter­mi­nal has been designed to pro­vide a fric­tion­less pas­sen­ger expe­ri­ence, incor­po­rat­ing auto­mat­ed elec­tron­ic check-in, advanced secu­ri­ty screen­ing, a pre­mi­um lounge and brief­ing rooms.

The devel­op­ment includes a mul­ti-deck car park, ensur­ing seam­less trans­fers between air and ground trans­port. It is also a short walk from the Emi­rates metro sta­tion, sup­port­ing onward inter­modal con­nec­tiv­i­ty.

Dun­can Walk­er, CEO of Sky­ports Infra­struc­ture, said: “Ver­ti­ports are cen­tral to the suc­cess of Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty. With DXV reach­ing this piv­otal mile­stone, and fur­ther ver­ti­port loca­tions now con­firmed with some of the UAE’s most pres­ti­gious land­lords, we’re see­ing AAM his­to­ry in the mak­ing.

“Dubai is gear­ing up to be the first city in the world to make com­mer­cial AAM a real­i­ty, and it’s an hon­our to be play­ing a part in facil­i­tat­ing ultra-fast, zero-emis­sion trav­el that will rev­o­lu­tionise the way that peo­ple move and nav­i­gate through urban areas.”

Fea­tured image: Pic­tured from L‑R: Bon­ny Simi, Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer at Joby Avi­a­tion, Dun­can Walk­er, CEO of Sky­ports, Ahmed Hashem Bahrozyan, CEO of Pub­lic Trans­port Agency, RTA.