SkyDrive collaborates with VPorts to promote international AAM industry from Dubai

Sky­Drive of Toy­ota City in Japan and VPorts have agreed to col­lab­o­rate on the tech­ni­cal and busi­ness aspect to lever­age the world’s first advanced air mobil­i­ty (AAM) Inte­gra­tor World Cen­tre in Dubai for busi­ness devel­op­ment and mar­ket expan­sion for both par­ties.

Sky­Drive was estab­lished in July 2018 after test­ing fly­ing car con­cepts and pro­to­types since 2014, and suc­ceed­ed in the first crewed flight test in Japan in 2019, with its SD-05 eVTOL in the process of acquir­ing Japan Civ­il Avi­a­tion Bureau (JCAB) cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

VPorts signed an agree­ment with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Aero­space Hub (MBRAH) to estab­lish a state-of-the-art AAM cen­tre on a 37,000 square metre site with­in Dubai South late last year.

VPorts to cre­ate world’s first AAM inte­gra­tor cen­tre in Dubai

With the sup­port of MBRAH and the Gen­er­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty (GCAA), VPorts will estab­lish its Ver­ti­port Oper­a­tion Con­trol Cen­tre (VOCC) hub as part of the AAM inte­gra­tor world cen­tre in Dubai.

Sky­Drive is now con­sid­er­ing using the AAM inte­gra­tor world cen­tre as part of its infra­struc­ture to pro­mote the con­tin­u­al growth of the inter­na­tion­al AAM indus­try and accel­er­ate the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of its eVTOL air­craft.

Sky­Drive CEO Tomo­hi­ro Fukuza­wa stat­ed: “We are pleased to be tak­ing a part in the UAE government’s strat­e­gy for AAM, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Dubai as it is one of the fastest grow­ing AAM mar­kets in the world.

“Sky­Drive aims to deliv­er full elec­tric and com­pact eVTOL vehi­cles for air taxi ser­vices and by col­lab­o­rat­ing with VPorts, we are able to secure an air traf­fic cor­ri­dor for vehi­cle test­ing with our eVTOL capa­bil­i­ties, which is essen­tial to ensure safe­ty before deploy­ment in the urban areas.

“Sky­Drive rec­og­nizes that UAE is one of the most impor­tant mar­kets and it is high­ly encour­ag­ing to be part of this strate­gic project which will pro­mote AAM in the UAE, by work­ing togeth­er with­in Dubai South and the GCAA.”

Dr Fethi Chebil, CEO and founder of VPorts, stat­ed: “We wel­come Sky­Drive join­ing us in shap­ing the future of the AAM sec­tor by lever­ag­ing the world’s first inte­gra­tor cen­tre, includ­ing its facil­i­ties and air­space. Our pres­ence in Dubai is in line with our strat­e­gy and ambi­tion to build and oper­ate 1,500 ver­ti­ports around the world by 2045.”