NBAA and GAMA applauds US Senate in passing Advanced Air Mobility Coordination and Leadership Act

The US Sen­ate has passed the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Coor­di­na­tion and Lead­er­ship Act, which estab­lish­es an inter-agency work­ing group to more effec­tive­ly engage the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment in fur­ther­ing the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) sec­tor.

Nation­al Busi­ness Avi­a­tion Asso­ci­a­tion (NBAA) Pres­i­dent and CEO Ed Bolen applaud­ed the pas­sage of the bill, which will facil­i­tate the cre­ation of poli­cies, pro­ce­dures and pro­grams to sup­port the inte­gra­tion of this emerg­ing avi­a­tion sec­tor into the US trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture.

“AAM is expand­ing the very def­i­n­i­tion of on-demand air mobil­i­ty and pre­sent­ing the Unit­ed States with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to enhance the country’s lead­er­ship in all aspects of avi­a­tion,” said Bolen. 

“We wel­come this leg­is­la­tion, and thank the bill’s spon­sors for cham­pi­oning this excit­ing new tech­nol­o­gy.”

The Sen­ate bill, and a com­pan­ion bill passed by the US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in Novem­ber 2021 instruct­ed the Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion to estab­lish an AAM inter­a­gency work­ing group to coor­di­nate efforts relat­ed to the safe­ty, oper­a­tions, infra­struc­ture, phys­i­cal secu­ri­ty, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty and fed­er­al invest­ment nec­es­sary to bol­ster the AAM ecosys­tem in the U.S.

The bill is part of a broad­er leg­isla­tive and reg­u­la­to­ry effort sup­port­ed by NBAA and indus­try stake­hold­ers. This includes NBAA’s work with the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion to draft guid­ance on ver­ti­ports, and with Trans­porta­tion Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials on secu­ri­ty best prac­tices. 

In May 2021, the NBAA formed a new Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty round­table, with found­ing mem­bers includ­ing eVTOL air­craft devel­op­ers Eve Air Mobil­i­ty, Joby Avi­a­tion, Lil­i­um and Wisk. Oth­er found­ing mem­bers include Hyundai UAM and Hill­wood Avi­a­tion.

“We applaud the Sen­ate for pass­ing the Act, which has broad bipar­ti­san and bicam­er­al sup­port,” said Pete Bunce, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Gen­er­al Avi­a­tion Man­u­fac­tur­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (GAMA). 

“We appre­ci­ate the work of those that cham­pi­oned the bill in the Sen­ate, espe­cial­ly its spon­sors, Sen­a­tors Moran and Sine­ma.

“We are on the cusp of the future of avi­a­tion, and it is our hope that Con­gress can work expe­di­tious­ly to get the bill finalised so that we can fur­ther devel­op and grow the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty sec­tor.” 

In March 2021, GAMA wel­comed five new mem­bers, includ­ing eVTOL air­craft devel­op­er Beta Tech­nolo­gies and Toy­ota Motor North Amer­i­ca, which has part­nered with Joby Avi­a­tion on the pro­duc­tion of its own air­craft. 

The remain­ing com­pa­nies to join GAMA as mem­bers include Air­bus Cor­po­rate Jets, Hartzell Engine Tech­nolo­gies and Inco­ra.