Japan’s first consortium for commercial operation and joint usage of an eVTOL vertiport launched by SkyDrive and Partners

Sky­Drive announce the for­ma­tion of Japan’s first con­sor­tium for the com­mer­cial oper­a­tion and joint usage of an eVTOL ver­ti­port.

The new con­sor­tium, which brings togeth­er the Osa­ka pre­fec­tur­al gov­ern­ment, Osa­ka munic­i­pal gov­ern­ment, Osa­ka Metro, Sor­a­cle and Marubeni Cor­po­ra­tion, will sup­port the com­mer­cial­iza­tion of Osakako Ver­ti­port, a ded­i­cat­ed eVTOL take­off and land­ing site locat­ed on the shore­line of Osa­ka Bay.

The for­ma­tion of the new con­sor­tium was announced dur­ing a kick­off meet­ing held to pro­mote the estab­lish­ment of com­mer­cial eVTOL ser­vices at the ver­ti­port, which is designed to serve as a hub for urban air mobil­i­ty across the Kan­sai region.

■ Today’s Kick­off Meet­ing
Dur­ing the meet­ing held to mark the launch of the con­sor­tium, the con­sor­tium part­ners dis­cussed a roadmap for pub­lic-pri­vate coop­er­a­tion over the com­mer­cial­iza­tion of eVTOL ser­vices based at the Osakako Ver­ti­port.

Osa­ka Gov­er­nor Hiro­fu­mi Yoshimu­ra shared his resolve to launch eVTOL ser­vices in Osa­ka, show­ing his strong sup­port and expec­ta­tions for the vertiport’s suc­cess.

He said: “In order to real­ize the ‘Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Rev­o­lu­tion’ that allows peo­ple to fly freely start­ing from the Osakako Ver­ti­port, we are com­mit­ted to dri­ving this ini­tia­tive for­ward as a pio­neer in Japan, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with all part­ners.”

Dur­ing the meet­ing, the attend­ing orga­ni­za­tions unan­i­mous­ly accept­ed a pro­pos­al from Osa­ka Metro to form a con­sor­tium to orga­nize and intro­duce com­mer­cial eVTOL oper­a­tions at the ver­ti­port.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, Sky­Drive also revealed a roadmap for the com­mer­cial­iza­tion of eVTOL ser­vices, show­ing the role played by the ver­ti­port, before going on to detail how, with the par­tic­u­lar sup­port of the Osa­ka pre­fec­tur­al gov­ern­ment, Osa­ka munic­i­pal gov­ern­ment and Osa­ka Metro, the con­sor­tium will inves­ti­gate the use of exist­ing infra­struc­ture, such as the 146 emer­gency heli­copter land­ing pads cur­rent­ly locat­ed through­out Osa­ka, for the sup­port eVTOL ser­vices.

■ SkyDrive’s Ongo­ing Ini­tia­tives in the Osa­ka Area
Pri­or to today’s con­sor­tium launch, Sky­Drive was already work­ing togeth­er with gov­ern­men­tal and pri­vate-sec­tor orga­ni­za­tions to pre­pare for the intro­duc­tion of com­mer­cial eVTOL in the Osa­ka area.

These ini­tia­tives include a part­ner­ship with Osa­ka Pre­fec­ture and Osa­ka City signed in Sep­tem­ber 2021 and a busi­ness part­ner­ship agree­ment with Osa­ka Metro con­clud­ed in August 2024.

In 2025, Sky­Drive also show­cased demon­stra­tion flights of its air­craft at the site of the 2025 Osa­ka Expo and also at the Osakako Ver­ti­port, the ded­i­cat­ed eVTOL facil­i­ty built by Osa­ka Metro next to Osa­ka Bay which is the focus of the new consortium’s activ­i­ties.

While the con­sor­tium aims to pro­mote the com­mer­cial use of the ver­ti­port, Sky­Drive and Osa­ka Metro are already har­ness­ing the facil­i­ty as a lega­cy of the Expo by work­ing togeth­er on a cal­en­dar of ver­ti­port events includ­ing exhi­bi­tions, chances to board mock­ups of the air­craft, and pan­el dis­cus­sions on eVTOL. Togeth­er, this pub­lic-fac­ing pro­gram helps to increase pub­lic aware­ness and accep­tance of eVTOL tech­nol­o­gy.

■ The Path For­ward
In March 2026, the Kan­sai Eco­nom­ic Fed­er­a­tion (Kankeiren) declared its inten­tion to sup­port the intro­duc­tion of com­mer­cial eVTOL ser­vices as part of its com­mit­ment to lever­ag­ing the lega­cy of the Osa­ka Expo, pub­lish­ing its vision which envi­sions an air mobil­i­ty area ser­viced by around 100 eVTOL air­craft based in and around Osa­ka Bay. The vision aims to achieve this goal by 2035.

Seen from a glob­al per­spec­tive, these ini­tia­tives now under­way in Osa­ka and the wider Kan­sai region to pre­pare for the com­mer­cial intro­duc­tion of eVTOL are at the fore­front of the indus­try, serv­ing as a lead­ing exam­ple of pub­lic-pri­vate coop­er­a­tion. Togeth­er with this new con­sor­tium and oth­er stake­hold­ers, Sky­Drive is har­ness­ing the dynamism of the Kan­sai region to bring eVTOL to the pub­lic.