By Philip Butterworth-Hayes
June 5 2023

In our latest monthly analysis of the Global Urban Air Mobility market, now covering 54 individual country AAM/UAM plans and more detailed analysis of 137 city and region UAM/AAM plans – the shift by the UAM industry from a low-carbon, alternative urban mass-transport network to a business aviation service for a few, select, well-heeled individuals showed a marked acceleration.

In May 2023 the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE) took place in Geneva, where the UAM sector embedded itself further into the global business aviation industry. Given the small size of the initial eVTOL aircraft cabins and the need to repay investors this was always inevitable, but it comes with a mighty health warning. Junking the societal benefits of UAM (see our article on urbanairmobilitynews.com) in favour of high net worth individuals has its risks.

“Around 100 climate protesters demanding a ban on private jets disrupted flights at Geneva Airport on Tuesday and blocked entry to an aircraft exhibition at Europe’s flagship business jet event,” according to a Reuters report. “The protest took place on the tarmac where business jets from companies like Airbus and Gulfstream were on display, with activists carrying signs saying “BanPrivateJets” and “WARNING: Private jets drown our hope.”

If UAM manufacturers and operators believe they can wave their environmental credentials in front of the climate protesters – including Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, Stay Grounded, Scientist Rebellion and Guardian Rebellion – and receive immediate absolution they are wrong.

Although climate change is the flag under which these groups gather there is also a major underlying political message which runs in parallel through all this direct action: flying is an elitist transport mode. A recent article in Global Environmental Change pointed to recent research that showed that only 11% of the world’s population used air transport in 2018, of which less than 4% was made up of international flights….‘When we talk about aviation, we’re really talking about an elite activity,’ said one of the researchers at an event organised by T&E and Carbon Market Watch. ‘Poor families don’t fly in the first place.”

The argument the UAM industry puts forward is: ”Yes – we will start small and expensive but as the technologies and regulations develop the ticket prices will come down and the sizes of eVTOLs will rise.” At the moment it is an unconvincing argument. Of the 137 city and region UAM/AAM plans identified within The Global Urban Air Mobility Market Map – with the exception of airport-based services – hardly any are being designed with 40-seat aircraft in mind. LYTE Aviation and the AAM Institute excepted.

Social objections to traditional aviation are muted for many reasons, one of the most important being legacy aviation is confined to airports and airspace. But bring it into the city centre and the opportunities for disruption are amplified.

We are in a “Stop5G!” era of unexpected social disruption and the danger is social groups who fear the rise of a new form of elitist aviation will combine with those who fear the rise of the machines. The fact that the UAM industry is underpinned by the US Department of Defense, the Chinese government and Silicon Valley will do nothing to assuage their concerns.

But all is not lost.

The industry must do more to back up its honeyed words about social inclusion being vital to the future of UAM with a few actions.

First, it must engage with political parties, such as the European Greens to give its environmental credentials the political support needed to convince sceptics.

Second, it needs to create a global UAM trade body with the intellectual heft to develop material which will engage local communities and national politicians alike, leaving space for debate and differences.

Third, it must engage with local authorities not as junior partners but as essential stakeholders. There are 15 areas of vertiport and airspace infrastructure development where local authorities have the power to say “no” and anyone of these can scupper the best laid plans of eVTOL operators. In this context, local authorities are not merely facilitators to the industry, they are the pivot between a sector based largely on a “Build it And They Will Come” business philosophy and an urban population which has no idea what is about to happen.

(Image: Shutterstock)