KOREA: GS Engineering & Construction pens deal with UI Group as it aims to play key role in country’s AAM operations

GS Engi­neer­ing & Con­struc­tion (GS E&C) has signed a strate­gic Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU) with UI Group at its head­quar­ters in Jong­no, Seoul, as it plans to be at the fore­front of the coun­try’s AAM oper­a­tions.

The com­pa­ny will now take the lead in form­ing busi­ness part­ner­ships with key stake­hold­ers in the Urban Air Mobil­i­ty (UAM) sec­tor and aims to deliv­er inte­grat­ed ser­vices encom­pass­ing ver­ti­port oper­a­tions, eVTOL flight oper­a­tions, traf­fic man­age­ment and MaaS (Mobil­i­ty-as-a-Ser­vice) inte­gra­tion.

In addi­tion UI Group will lever­age its exper­tise in flight oper­a­tions of UI Heli­jet and MRO (Main­te­nance, Repair, and Over­haul) of UI Heli­copter to play a key role in estab­lish­ing safe­ty and main­te­nance sys­tems for eVTOL oper­a­tions, as well as in work­force devel­op­ment and train­ing.

Com­ment­ing on the announce­ment, a GS E&C offi­cial said: “This MOU marks a sig­nif­i­cant step in secur­ing the exe­cu­tion­al foun­da­tion for our role as an inte­grat­ed UAM ser­vice oper­a­tor and strate­gic investor in the ini­tial mar­ket. We expect strong syn­er­gy through this part­ner­ship with UI Group, par­tic­u­lar­ly in build­ing real oper­a­tional capa­bil­i­ties.”

A rep­re­sen­ta­tive from UI Group added: “This is a mean­ing­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty for us to offi­cial­ly enter the UAM sec­tor by lever­ag­ing our spe­cial­ized exper­tise in oper­a­tions and main­te­nance. We aim to make this part­ner­ship a lead­ing exam­ple of UAM com­mer­cial­iza­tion in Korea.”

Key areas of coop­er­a­tion include:

I. Devel­op­ing busi­ness mod­els for the ini­tial mar­ket based on com­ple­men­tary strate­gies
II. Strength­en­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with Busan Met­ro­pol­i­tan City for pilot projects
III. Estab­lish­ing an inte­grat­ed UAM oper­a­tion frame­work cov­er­ing flight oper­a­tions, traf­fic man­age­ment, and ver­ti­port man­age­ment
IV. Explor­ing long-term strate­gic coop­er­a­tion to build the foun­da­tion of Korea’s UAM indus­try

GS E&C and UI Group plan to col­lab­o­rate on UAM pilot projects led by the Min­istry of Land, Infra­struc­ture and Trans­port (MOLIT) and local gov­ern­ments. Togeth­er, they aim to estab­lish prac­ti­cal capa­bil­i­ties and sys­tems to ensure safe urban flight oper­a­tions, while
accel­er­at­ing their entry into the ear­ly-stage UAM mar­ket.

Beyond par­tic­i­pat­ing in demon­stra­tion projects, the two com­pa­nies will also explore and devel­op joint busi­ness mod­els for mid- to long-term expan­sion of UAM ser­vices, both in Korea and abroad.

As part of the agree­ment, GS E&C will take a lead in form­ing busi­ness part­ner­ships with key domes­tic and inter­na­tion­al play­ers across all UAM sec­tors to deliv­er inte­grat­ed UAM ser­vices. UI Group will focus on ensur­ing safe oper­a­tion and main­te­nance of eVTOL air­craft by con­tribut­ing its exper­tise in flight oper­a­tions and MRO, as well as in work­force train­ing and devel­op­ment.