Gregg Polek

In 2024, UPS will start integrating Beta Technologies' all-electric Alia 250 eVTOL aircraft into its fleet. The package-delivery giant—which is Beta's third customer, following earlier commitments from United Therapeutics and the U.S. Air Force—will also use the company's battery recharging units.

Pipistrel's selection of more of Honeywell Aerospace's avionics technology follows its choice of the company's new compact fly-by-wire system for the Nuuva V300 unmanned aerial vehicle. Honeywell is pursuing new applications for its flight deck and propulsion systems in the advanced air mobility sector.

Following flight trials with two eVTOL aircraft demonstrators, the CityAirbus and the Vahana, it has been unclear what Airbus's next steps in this field might be. Company CEO Guillaume Faury says the group will keep working on this technology, even though it now feels it may take until later in the 2020s to establish commercial air taxi services.

Sweden-based Heart Aerospace now has letters of intent from a dozen airlines that have provisionally committed to purchasing more than 300 of the company's ES-19 all-electric aircraft. This year, it expects to announce new investment in the project and also some prominent suppliers as partners.

Volocopter sees the logistics sector as being a substantial part of the urban air mobility market, in which it expects to be operating as many as 100,000 eVTOL vehicles by 2035. The company still won't say whether it plans to raise further funds through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, as fellow panelist Blade Urban Air Mobility is doing.

Embraer CEO Francisco Gomes Neto told analysts that it is seeking new investment for both its Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions subsidiary and its planned regional turboprop airliner. While discussions for the latter are now at an "advanced stage," he had nothing "concrete" to report on securing new partners for the development of Embraer's four-passenger, all-electric eVTOL aircraft.

Seven more organizations have joined the U.S.-based Community Air Mobility Initiative and the group has also brought more public agencies into its Urban Air Policy Collaborative project. New participants include the city of San Jose, California, and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

The air transport industry recognizes that it won't get hydrogen-powered aircraft into commercial service until there is the widespread infrastructure to support fuelling. Airbus has joined with the Air France-KLM airline group, Aeroports de Paris and the French capital's regional development agency to invite partners to join them to prepare Paris-area airports.

At the Vertical Flight Society's Electric VTOL Symposium, Nexa Advisors managing partner Michael Dyment presented a new case study support the introduction of eVTOL aircraft transportation services in and around the Canadian city of Vancouver. Apart from the anticipated $2 billion in revenues from the flights themselves, he sees an additional $2.1 billion contribution to the local economy.

Cyrus Sigari, managing partner in early-stage venture capital group Up.Partners, says it is advanced air mobility's potential to democratize air travel that underpins its investment potential. He said investors should be ready to back an array of enabling technologies, not only in aviation.