Japan: Archer’s Midnight eVTOL Aircraft featured in consortium to take part in Tokyo’s ‘eVTOL Implementation Project’

A Japan Air­lines-led con­sor­tium, which fea­tures Archer’s Mid­night Air­craft, has been select­ed by the Tokyo Met­ro­pol­i­tan Gov­ern­ment to par­tic­i­pate in phase one of Tokyo’s ‘eVTOL Imple­men­ta­tion Project’.

As part of the project, Archer will work along­side Japan Air­lines, Sum­it­o­mo Cor­po­ra­tion and their JV oper­at­ing com­pa­ny, Sor­a­cle, to build an oper­at­ing ecosys­tem in Tokyo, which rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal step towards ramp­ing com­mer­cial oper­a­tions in the com­ing years.

Phase one of the project will assess the mar­ket and build the oper­at­ing ecosys­tem, lead­ing up to planned demon­stra­tion flights over Tokyo Bay and riv­er routes, which rep­re­sents crit­i­cal steps towards ramp­ing com­mer­cial oper­a­tions in the com­ing years.

Adam Gold­stein, Archer’s Founder and CEO, said: “We applaud the Tokyo Met­ro­pol­i­tan Government’s ‘eVTOL Imple­men­ta­tion Pro­gram.’

“The selec­tion of our con­sor­tium to be a part of this inno­v­a­tive gov­ern­ment approach gives Archer, togeth­er with JAL, Sum­it­o­mo Cor­po­ra­tion and Sor­a­cle, a crit­i­cal oppor­tu­ni­ty to help make the promise of urban mobil­i­ty an every­day real­i­ty in Tokyo, the world’s largest city.”

Takao Suzu­ki, Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent-Inno­va­tion of Japan Air­lines, added: “Japan Air­lines is hon­ored to work with the Tokyo Met­ro­pol­i­tan Gov­ern­ment and our con­sor­tium part­ners on the first phase of the eVTOL Imple­men­ta­tion Project.”

The selec­tion rec­og­nizes the strength of the exist­ing strate­gic part­ner­ship Archer has devel­oped with Japan Air­lines and Sum­it­o­mo Cor­po­ra­tion through their joint ven­ture eVTOL oper­at­ing com­pa­ny, Sor­a­cle.

Archer and Sor­a­cle pre­vi­ous­ly announced a strate­gic alliance in Novem­ber 2024 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.

This announce­ment builds on the recent momen­tum achieved by Archer in key Asia-Pacif­ic mar­kets. Last month, Archer announced an exclu­sive deal with Kore­an Air that includes the poten­tial pur­chase of up to 100 Mid­night air­craft.