Skyportz Praises “New Action Plan for AAM in Victoria, Australia”

Aus­tralian ver­ti­port devel­op­er, Sky­portz, wel­comed this week a release of the final Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) Action Plan for the State of Vic­to­ria, Aus­tralia, reports a press release.

The pol­i­cy doc­u­ment states that dur­ing next year the Depart­ment of Trans­port and Plan­ning “will devel­op and pub­lish ini­tial guid­ance mate­r­i­al to sup­port assess­ment of ear­ly ver­ti­port appli­ca­tions under the exist­ing Vic­to­ri­an reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work.”

This will be fol­lowed in 2026 with a “review and update (as required) of spe­cif­ic land use and devel­op­ment reg­u­la­tion to sup­port a coor­di­nat­ed approach to ver­ti­port plan­ning infra­struc­ture.”

Clem New­ton-Brown, CEO of Sky­portz, com­ment­ed, “The Aus­tralian Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty indus­try has been wait­ing for some Gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy lead­er­ship on ver­ti­port land-use plan­ning to kick start things, so we wel­come today’s release from the Vic­to­ri­an Gov­ern­ment.”

The Depart­ment of Trans­port and Plan­ning will also “explore oppor­tu­ni­ties to embed Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty and zero emis­sion avi­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy in future Vic­to­ri­an trans­port, precinct devel­op­ment and freight relat­ed pol­i­cy, strat­e­gy and frame­works.”

New­ton-Brown con­tin­ued, “This pol­i­cy announce­ment is a green light for the prop­er­ty devel­op­ment indus­try to start plan­ning for this rev­o­lu­tion in the way we move peo­ple and goods.”

Adding, “The ver­ti­port infra­struc­ture is the miss­ing piece of the puz­zle for this indus­try. With­out new ver­ti­port land­ing sites in places peo­ple want to go, the air­craft will nev­er ful­fil their poten­tial.”

Sky­portz aims to break the nexus between avi­a­tion and air­ports and enable com­mer­cial and indus­tri­al prop­er­ty devel­op­ers to host ver­ti­ports. Over 400 prop­er­ty sites have expressed an inter­est in host­ing a ver­ti­port in Aus­tralia.

The Aus­tralian air reg­u­la­tor, CASA, has also released ver­ti­port guide­lines, sig­nalling a com­mit­ment to facil­i­tate AAM in Aus­tralia. These guide­lines envis­age that new ver­ti­ports will exclude heli­copters to assist with devel­op­ing com­mu­ni­ty sup­port for Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty.

https://www.casa.gov.au/resources-and-education/publications/guide-vertiport-design

It explains, “This will give the AAM indus­try an oppor­tu­ni­ty to demon­strate to the com­mu­ni­ty that a ver­ti­port (cater­ing only for air taxis) may be more desir­able than a heli­port. If com­mu­ni­ties are going to accept AAM as an indus­try, then gain­ing this ‘social licence’ is vital­ly impor­tant. With the guid­ance for ver­ti­ports clear­ly exclud­ing the use of heli­copters then we hope that local coun­cils and com­mu­ni­ties will be more accept­ing to AAM in their local­i­ties.”

Please Read Vic­to­ri­an Gov­ern­ment Pol­i­cy Doc­u­ment (July 2024)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cou0gncquohztaubzhpdv/Victorian-2024-FINAL_Final-AAM-Action-Plan.pdf?rlkey=3a3b42xtocvyji0o35j4a7y0k&e=1&st=5f9kkqu5&dl=0

New­ton-Brown con­clud­ed, “Inter­est from the prop­er­ty indus­try is rapid­ly build­ing. We envis­age ver­ti­port devel­op­ments will attract high­er rents as busi­ness­es demand to have drone freight and air taxi ser­vices for cus­tomers.”

For more infor­ma­tion

https://skyportz.com/

(Image: Sky­portz)

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