PICTURES: Osaka Metro unveils ‘OSAKAKO Vertiport’ facility for 2025 Expo, to also host demo flights of SkyDrive’s eVTOL aircraft

Osa­ka Metro has announced the com­ple­tion of its ‘OSAKAKO Ver­ti­port’, a new take-off and land­ing facil­i­ty intend­ed to serve the venue of the Expo 2025 in Osa­ka, Japan, lat­er this year.

In a press release issued today (Fri­day), Sky­Drive con­firmed it will use the new ver­ti­port for demon­stra­tion flights, which will take place as part of the Expo pro­gram. To mark the occa­sion, a com­ple­tion cer­e­mo­ny was held in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Osa­ka City.

Dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny, speak­ers shared their expec­ta­tions for the future role of the facil­i­ty. Sky­Drive also unveiled a full-scale mock­up of the ‘SKYDRIVE’, the air­craft which will con­duct demon­stra­tion flights dur­ing the Expo. Fol­low­ing the unveil­ing, mem­bers of the press were invit­ed to board the mock­up.

The name ‘OSAKAKO Ver­ti­port’ ref­er­ences ‘Osa­ka Ko’, the name of the near­est sta­tion, which is on Osa­ka Metro’s Chuo Line. Through the Expo 2025 pro­gram, Osa­ka Metro hopes to pro­mote wider recog­ni­tion of the word ‘ver­ti­port’ as a term for describ­ing an eVTOL take­off and land­ing site.

The ver­ti­port facil­i­ties include a hangar for the main­te­nance, refu­el­ing and stor­age of eVTOL air­craft, a take­off and land­ing area. It also includes a pas­sen­ger facil­i­ty, where users can expe­ri­ence the sim­u­lat­ed check-in and board­ing of a mock-up eVTOL air­craft through a process that includes facial recog­ni­tion.

The 12,000 m² site has been designed to serve as a mobil­i­ty hub, con­nect­ing eVTOL air­craft with oth­er trans­porta­tion options such as on-demand bus­es and shared bicy­cles.

Dur­ing the Expo, SKYDRIVE is sched­uled to oper­ate demo flights between the EXPO Ver­ti­port, a ver­ti­port locat­ed inside the Expo site, and the OSAKAKO Ver­ti­port.

In addi­tion to its role as a hub for eVTOL demon­stra­tion flights dur­ing the Expo, the ver­ti­port also will host events open to the gen­er­al pub­lic from mid-April 2025 onwards. These events will fea­ture exhibits show­cas­ing the devel­op­ment of eVTOL tech­nol­o­gy.

Vis­i­tors will also have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence board­ing a mock-up eVTOL air­craft through a seam­less process that includes facial recog­ni­tion. Reser­va­tions for these events will be avail­able on Osa­ka Metro’s offi­cial web­site start­ing mid-April 2025. Click here to view a short video show­ing the process.

Osa­ka Metro is a trans­porta­tion provider which aims to make the Japan­ese city a more con­ve­nient and com­fort­able city. It oper­ates nine metro lines and the New Tram, an auto­mat­ed, dri­ver­less ser­vice.

In Jan­u­ary 2024, it was cho­sen by the City of Osa­ka through an open bid process designed to select the future oper­a­tor of a ver­ti­port to serve the Expo venue in Osa­ka City’s Mina­to Ward. Since win­ning that bid, Osa­ka Metro has been devel­op­ing the ver­ti­port at Osa­ka Port’s Chuo Pier.

As part of this mis­sion, the com­pa­ny is pro­mot­ing “e METRO”, an urban MaaS (Mobil­i­ty as a Ser­vice) ini­tia­tive designed to meet the diverse needs of cus­tomers by pro­vid­ing a uni­fied mobil­i­ty ser­vice that inte­grates var­i­ous modes of trans­port, includ­ing future flights via eVTOL air­craft.

Rec­og­niz­ing the poten­tial of eVTOL as a promis­ing form of trans­porta­tion, Osa­ka Metro signed a busi­ness part­ner­ship agree­ment with Sky­Drive in August 2024, to realise an ide­al mix of mobil­i­ty options for its cus­tomers

You can vis­it the Expo web­site, by click­ing here. (in Japan­ese).