Osaka Expo 2025: Organisers Begin Recruitment Process for eVTOL Operators

Air taxis fly­ing the pub­lic to and from the Osa­ka Expo will be a major attrac­tion dur­ing the six month long event. The organ­is­ers have begun the process of choos­ing which eVTOL com­pa­nies are to be involved, reports akihabaranews.com. The Expo starts on 13th April and clos­es 13th Octo­ber, 2025. The exhi­bi­tion is being designed to her­ald the full-scale arrival of the eVTOL indus­try in Japan.

The announce­ment for appli­ca­tion guide­lines and the launch of the recruit­ment process began two weeks ago. The dead­lines ahead are as fol­lows: For ques­tions from poten­tial oper­a­tors (Jan­u­ary 17th); sub­mis­sion of appli­ca­tions (Jan­u­ary 20th); sign­ing of mem­o­ran­dums of under­stand­ing (Jan­u­ary 27th); lead­ing to a pub­lic announce­ment of the cho­sen eVTOL oper­a­tors at the end of Jan­u­ary.

The oper­a­tors are expect­ed to pro­vide eVTOL air taxi ser­vices for vis­i­tors to the Osa­ka Expo between a ver­ti­port at the Yumeshi­ma site and at least one oth­er off­site loca­tion, such as Kan­sai Inter­na­tion­al Air­port or cen­tral Osa­ka. The dis­tance between these points is around 30 kilo­me­tres.

The obvi­ous ques­tion: Which eVTOL com­pa­nies will apply and who may then be cho­sen?

It is already known that Japan-based Sky­Drive and its SD-05 eVTOL is a shoo-in. As for oth­ers, these could include Joby, Archer, Volo­copter and EHang. All four com­pa­nies may have gained full com­mer­cial flight cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by then.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.expo2025.or.jp/en/

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(Top graph­ic image: Japan Association/via Kyo­do)