Japan: “Archer, Soracle Chosen by Osaka to Lead Air Taxi Services in City, Prefecture”

Archer Avi­a­tion announced this week that its Japan­ese part­ner Sor­a­cle, a joint ven­ture between Japan Air­lines and Sum­it­o­mo Cor­po­ra­tion, has been cho­sen to lead the estab­lish­ment of air taxi ser­vices in Osa­ka City and Pre­fec­ture, reports a press release.  

This assigns Archer as the only U.S eVTOL man­u­fac­tur­er to play a key role in form­ing such ser­vices in the region.

The agree­ment with Osa­ka City and its Pre­fec­ture rep­re­sent an impor­tant step for cre­at­ing the oper­a­tional, reg­u­la­to­ry and com­mu­ni­ty frame­works required to con­nect Osa­ka and the broad­er Kan­sai region with air taxi flights. 

The release states, “Archer and Sor­a­cle pre­vi­ous­ly announced a col­lab­o­ra­tion last Novem­ber to joint­ly launch air taxi oper­a­tions in Japan, with the goal of offer­ing ser­vices in cities where exist­ing ground trans­porta­tion is con­strained by traf­fic or geo­graph­ic bar­ri­ers. Archer and Sor­a­cle recent­ly dis­played the Mid­night air­craft at the Osa­ka Kan­sai World Expo to show­case its planned future air taxi ser­vice in the Kan­sai region.”

Adam Gold­stein, Archer CEO and Founder, com­ment­ed, “We’re proud of our con­tin­ued part­ner­ship with Sor­a­cle and it was an hon­our to host Min­is­ter Nakano and the Japan­ese del­e­ga­tion this past week. I look for­ward to deep­en­ing our rela­tion­ship in the coun­try as we build the foun­da­tion for com­mer­cial air taxi ser­vices in Japan.”

Osa­ka Pre­fec­ture (cen­tre of map)

Addi­tion­al­ly this past week, a del­e­ga­tion from Japan, includ­ing Hiro­masa Nakano, the Min­is­ter of Land, Infra­struc­ture, Trans­port and Tourism; the Japan Civ­il Avi­a­tion Bureau; and the Con­sul Gen­er­al of Japan in San Fran­cis­co, vis­it­ed Archer’s HQ in San Jose, Cal­i­for­nia for a brief­ing with the company’s lead­er­ship, to dis­cuss how the par­ties can realise air taxi ser­vices across the coun­try.

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Sor­a­cle CEO Yuk­i­hi­ro Ota remarked, “Thanks to Archer’s ded­i­cat­ed and con­tin­u­ous coop­er­a­tion and sup­port, we are con­fi­dent that we can achieve the Osa­ka goal and realise the social imple­men­ta­tion togeth­er with its Pre­fec­ture and City.”

The release con­cludes, “From high-speed rail to mod­ern avi­a­tion infra­struc­ture, Japan has long been a glob­al pio­neer in the adop­tion of advanced trans­porta­tion sys­tems. Now, with the immi­nent com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of eVTOL air­craft, the coun­try is once again poised to be an ear­ly adopter in the next gen­er­a­tion of air trans­porta­tion.”

For more infor­ma­tion

www.archer.com

https://www.soraclecorp.com

(Top image: Adam Gold­stein, Hiro­masa Nakano, Japan’s Min­is­ter of Land, Infra­struc­ture, Trans­port and Tourism)

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