Vertical Aerospace Advances Japan Commercialisation with Marubeni Via Electric Air Taxi Routes 

Ver­ti­cal Aero­space has announced a major accel­er­a­tion of its com­mer­cial roadmap in Japan, work­ing in part­ner­ship with Marubeni Cor­po­ra­tion to map out a future elec­tric air taxi net­work across the coun­try.

Ahead of this, both com­pa­nies are pro­gress­ing plans for pilot­ed demon­stra­tion flights in the Osa­ka Bay area, tar­get­ed for lat­er this year.

Stu­art Simp­son, CEO of Ver­ti­cal Aero­space, said, “Japan com­bines strong reg­u­la­to­ry lead­er­ship, advanced infra­struc­ture and trust­ed indus­tri­al part­ners, mak­ing it one of the most promis­ing mar­kets glob­al­ly for Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty.

“Our part­ner­ship with Marubeni and engage­ment with JCAB demon­strate our care­ful, step-by-step approach to devel­op­ing real-world Valo oper­a­tions, ground­ed in safe­ty, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and pub­lic accep­tance.”

Toru Okaza­ki, Exec­u­tive Offi­cer and Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer, Aero­space & Mobil­i­ty Divi­sion, Marubeni Cor­po­ra­tion, added: “We are pleased to take this next step with Ver­ti­cal Aero­space as we progress toward demon­stra­tion fly­ing in Japan.

“By advanc­ing route devel­op­ment in the Kan­sai region, we see sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties to build the oper­at­ing infra­struc­ture and ecosys­tem required to accel­er­ate AAM adop­tion.”

Route net­work devel­op­ment: the Kan­sai region and beyond

One flag­ship cor­ri­dor under eval­u­a­tion in the Kan­sai region could see Ver­ti­cal’s Valo eVTOL air­craft reduce trav­el times by almost 80 per cent com­pared with­ground trans­port, while oper­at­ing qui­et­ly with zero-emis­sions. 

Uses cas­es being pro­gressed include:

• Pre­mi­um Tourism and Major Events: Rapid access from major urban cen­tres to scenic des­ti­na­tions such as Osa­ka to Awa­ji Island, Shodoshi­ma, and air taxi ser­vices to sup­port trans­porta­tion for inter­na­tion­al exhi­bi­tions and large-scale events
• Air­port shut­tles and inte­grat­ed con­nec­tions: Pro­vid­ing fast, first- and last-mile links to major trans­port hubs and air­ports, e.g. Izu­misano to Osa­ka and Kobe 
• Essen­tial Ser­vices: Sup­port­ing time-crit­i­cal med­ical and logis­tics trans­port e.g. emer­gency response cov­er­age in Osa­ka-Hyo­go dis­trict

From Expo to Com­mer­cial Oper­a­tion

The announce­ment builds on the strong momen­tum from the 2025 Osa­ka World Expo, which attract­ed more than 29 mil­lion vis­i­tors, where atten­dees had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage with Valo through an immer­sive cab­in expe­ri­ence with sim­u­lat­ed com­mer­cial flight routes across the Kan­sai region. 

Reg­u­la­to­ry and Com­mer­cial Matu­ri­ty

Valo will be Vertical’s cer­ti­fi­ca­tion air­craft, designed to fly up to 160 km at speeds of up to 240 km/h with zero oper­at­ing emis­sions, and engi­neered to meet air­lin­er-lev­el safe­ty stan­dards. Ver­ti­cal is also devel­op­ing a hybrid-elec­tric vari­ant, offer­ing increased range and mis­sion flex­i­bil­i­ty.

Key mile­stones under­pin­ning Vertical’s com­mer­cial path­way in Japan include:

• Reg­u­la­to­ry val­i­da­tion: The Japan Civ­il Avi­a­tion Bureau (JCAB) accept­ed Vertical’s appli­ca­tion into the type val­i­da­tion pro­gramme in 2023, pro­vid­ing a clear cer­ti­fi­ca­tion roadmap for entry into ser­vice. Ver­ti­cal is tar­get­ing air­lin­er-lev­el safe­ty type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in 2028 for Valo with the UK Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty (CAA), which will be fol­lowed by JCAB val­i­da­tion
• Com­mer­cial com­mit­ment: Marubeni has for­malised its com­mit­ment through pre-deliv­ery slot reser­va­tion pay­ments for the first 25 out of 200 Valo air­craft, reflect­ing grow­ing con­fi­dence in the pro­gramme
• Ecosys­tem part­ner­ships: Ver­ti­cal has been engaged in dis­cus­sions with part­ners in the region to devel­op the oper­at­ing infra­struc­ture as well as after­mar­ket sup­port in Japan