Rolls-Royce and Roland Berger study predicts AAM market could deliver $36.9 billion of revenue to APAC region by 2050

Rolls-Royce and Roland Berg­er have released a mar­ket study into the poten­tial of the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Mar­ket (AAM) for the APAC region, which con­sists of coun­tries includ­ing Aus­tralia, Chi­na, India, Japan, Sin­ga­pore, South Korea and New Zealand.

The report looks into the ben­e­fits of pas­sen­ger eVTOL air­craft that can be used for Urban and Region­al Air Mobil­i­ty. This includes city taxi or air­port shut­tle routes and inter­ci­ty flights of up to 250 km. 

The study also high­lights the impor­tance of gov­ern­ment, indus­try and reg­u­la­tors work­ing togeth­er to devel­op the reg­u­la­tion, infra­struc­ture and soci­etal change need­ed to deliv­er the many eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal ben­e­fits that AAM offers. This is a new emerg­ing mar­ket that could deliv­er $36.9 bil­lion of ser­vice rev­enue alone across the APAC region by 2050.

Rob Wat­son, Pres­i­dent – Elec­tri­cal, Rolls-Royce, said: “The Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty mar­ket is incred­i­bly excit­ing, offer­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to trans­form the way we trav­el. This mar­ket study with Roland Berg­er demon­strates the com­mer­cial poten­tial of the APAC region and how the region could lead the way in intro­duc­ing all-elec­tric pas­sen­ger ser­vices.

“Rolls-Royce is at the fore­front of devel­op­ing and deliv­er­ing all-elec­tric and hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion sys­tems that will enable pas­sen­gers to trav­el sus­tain­ably and help deliv­er net zero car­bon by 2050.”

Key find­ings of the report are:

·         From the glob­al AAM mar­ket, the APAC region could account for more than half of all oper­at­ed eVTOL air­craft and over 40% of glob­al rev­enue by 2050

·         82,500 AAM air­craft could be in oper­a­tion in the APAC region by 2050, with an esti­mat­ed $36.9 bn of ser­vice rev­enue

·         Mar­ket fore­casts show APAC coun­tries imple­ment­ing AAM ser­vices before 2030, with the poten­tial of over a thou­sand of air­craft by 2030

·         Fron­trun­ner cities, like Sin­ga­pore, Tokyo or Seoul have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to orches­trate the imple­men­ta­tion of the AAM ecosys­tem to deliv­er this excit­ing mar­ket for the future

·         AAM is already becom­ing real­i­ty in the APAC region, with inter­est­ing part­ner­ships and air­line activ­i­ties announced in fron­trun­ner cities

The urban geo­gra­phies of the cities of Sin­ga­pore, Tokyo and Seoul mean the APAC region could lead the way in advanced air mobil­i­ty by offer­ing time-sav­ing and more con­ve­nient trav­el that could bring down­town, sub­urbs and tourist attrac­tions clos­er togeth­er.

The study esti­mates that 16,400 Pas­sen­ger VTOL air­craft could be in oper­a­tion in Japan, worth around $14.3 bil­lion ser­vice rev­enue, by 2050, with South Korea offer­ing the com­mer­cial poten­tial of $3.8 bil­lion and Sin­ga­pore $350 mil­lion, in under three decades.

Man­fred Had­er, Senior Part­ner and Glob­al Head of Aero­space & Defence, Roland Berg­er, added: “A whole new ecosys­tem with new busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties will emerge as AAM becomes a real­i­ty.”

Rolls-Royce is offer­ing cus­tomers a com­plete elec­tric and hybrid-elec­tric pow­er and propul­sion sys­tem for their plat­form. Solu­tions are under devel­op­ment for elec­tric ver­ti­cal take-off and land­ing (eVTOL), elec­tric short take-off/­land­ing (eSTOL) and elec­tric fixed-wing com­muter air­craft sup­port­ed by a spe­cialised team based in Sin­ga­pore as part of the glob­al Rolls-Royce Elec­tri­cal busi­ness.

Rolls-Royce is col­lab­o­rat­ing with Ver­ti­cal Aero­space for the elec­tri­cal tech­nol­o­gy that will pow­er their pio­neer­ing eVTOL air­craft. In addi­tion, Rolls-Royce and air­framer Tec­nam are cur­rent­ly work­ing with Widerøe, the largest region­al air­line in Scan­di­navia, to deliv­er an all-elec­tric pas­sen­ger air­craft for the com­muter mar­ket.

Beyond that, Rolls-Royce will lever­age its exist­ing capa­bil­i­ties to deliv­er main­te­nance ser­vices for the emerg­ing AAM indus­try and togeth­er with Rolls-Royce Pow­er Sys­tems will look to pro­vide charg­ing and ener­gy infra­struc­ture for air­ports and ver­ti­ports.

Oth­er coun­tries in the APAC region are Bangladesh, Cam­bo­dia, Indone­sia, Iran, Iraq, Kaza­khstan, Laos, Malaysia, Myan­mar, Pak­istan, Philip­pines, Rus­sia„ Sri Lan­ka, Tai­wan, Thai­land, Turk­menistan, Uzbek­istan and Viet­nam.