Skyports Wins Nine Japanese AAM Subsidy Projects Across Six Prefectures

Sky­ports Infra­struc­ture has secured nine Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) sub­sidy projects in Japan dur­ing 2026, with the projects cov­er­ing six pre­fec­tures and focus­ing on ver­ti­port plan­ning, net­work devel­op­ment and com­mer­cial fea­si­bil­i­ty.

The com­pa­ny said it achieved a 100% appli­ca­tion suc­cess rate across the sub­sidy projects it par­tic­i­pat­ed in this year. The work is being car­ried out with Japan­ese com­pa­nies includ­ing Kane­mat­su Cor­po­ra­tion, Mit­sui Fudosan, Kyushu Rail­way Com­pa­ny and Suzuyo Cor­po­ra­tion.

In Osa­ka, Sky­ports is sup­port­ing Kane­mat­su on the basic design and busi­ness case for a poten­tial main­te­nance, repair and over­haul (MRO) facil­i­ty in Osa­ka City. The project also involves iden­ti­fy­ing and eval­u­at­ing poten­tial ver­ti­port loca­tions across Osa­ka Pre­fec­ture.

Four sep­a­rate projects are tak­ing place in Hyo­go Pre­fec­ture, includ­ing ini­tia­tives in Sumo­to on Awa­ji Island, Kinosa­ki Onsen, the Kobe Water­front area and Ari­ma Onsen. The work cov­ers ver­ti­port fea­si­bil­i­ty stud­ies, pre­lim­i­nary designs and oper­a­tional con­cepts.

In Oita Pre­fec­ture, a project led by Kyushu Rail­way Com­pa­ny is exam­in­ing the poten­tial imple­men­ta­tion of AAM. Sky­ports is con­duct­ing com­mer­cial fea­si­bil­i­ty work and assess­ing pos­si­ble loca­tions for future ver­ti­ports.

In Yamanashi, the com­pa­ny is under­tak­ing pre­lim­i­nary sur­veys and plan­ning for a poten­tial ver­ti­port near a Lin­ear Chuo Shinkansen sta­tion. A sep­a­rate project in Shizuo­ka, led by Suzuyo Cor­po­ra­tion, involves site sur­veys and ver­i­fi­ca­tion work as part of a busi­ness fea­si­bil­i­ty study for future ver­ti­ports in the Shizuo­ka City area.

In Mie Pre­fec­ture, Sky­ports is work­ing with Mit­sui Fudosan and Ise-Shi­ma Resort Man­age­ment to exam­ine a poten­tial air taxi net­work span­ning the Chubu and Kan­sai regions, cen­tered on Ise-Shi­ma. The work includes iden­ti­fy­ing poten­tial ver­ti­port loca­tions and con­sid­er­ing how they could con­nect with exist­ing trans­port net­works.

Sky­ports said the projects will cov­er a range of poten­tial appli­ca­tions, includ­ing region­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty and tourism, as local author­i­ties and indus­try part­ners assess how AAM could be incor­po­rat­ed into Japan’s wider trans­porta­tion net­work.

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

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