The Montreal company VPorts wants to develop a network of vertiports in Greater Montreal, these airport infrastructures that are used for the take-off and landing of flying taxis.
“We are only at the beginning of the process”, concedes from the outset to the To have to Fethi Chebil, owner of VPorts. Established in November 2021, the company is currently investigating opportunities and possible deployment of “flying taxi” airports, small electric vertical take-off (eVTOL) aircraft.
“We are currently trying to find out where we can establish vertiports,” explains Mr. Chebil. VPorts commissioned Innovitech, a firm specializing in technological innovations, to gauge the potential of the sector. The study focuses on the nerve centers that could be connected: the Technoparc, not far from the Montréal-Trudeau international airport, as well as the vicinity of the Longueuil and Mirabel airports.
Moreover, VPorts does not intend to compete with aeronautical heavyweights such as Airbus, Boeing, Embraer or CAE, which are currently creating eVTOL prototypes. “There is a lot of money invested in the development of flying taxis, but there are not many fewer companies that want to position themselves in infrastructure”, adds the owner, specifying that this is the niche that VPorts wants to enter.
More than 200 prototypes
Depending on the development of the sector, the success of the initiative is not guaranteed. No device has yet been marketed on a large scale. Nevertheless, more than 200 prototypes are in development, and the sector is arousing interest.
The European Aviation Safety Agency launched a study on the subject in the spring of 2021 with residents of major cities on the Old Continent, including Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, Cranfield, in the United Kingdom, and Saint-Jacques. -de-Compostelle, Spain.
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is working to develop regulations for urban air mobility by 2023-2024, which includes both flying taxis and delivery drones.
Here, big players in the industry are exploring the avenue. Montreal’s CAE is one of them. Specializing in flight simulation technologies, the company announced in last July $340 million in financial support from the Quebec and Canadian governments.
Upcoming frameworks
Promising, the growth of the sector remains nonetheless uncertain, as shown by recent studies. In May 2021, Morgan Stanley Research slashed its forecast of the market value by 2030 by 75%. In 2018, the firm estimated that the industry would be worth $45 billion by the end of the decade; it now estimates that its value would hover around 12 billion.
One of the challenges lies in the supervision of the sector, says Fethi Chebil: “For devices, there are new regulations that must be put in place, and several countries, including Canada, are thinking about it. . »
There is also the supervision of the activities of the vertiports, he continues: “We are a little luckier, because the certification of the vertiports, generally, will start with something similar to that of the heliports, but it needs to be accommodated,” he says, noting that size and noise are “much greater” with a helicopter than with eVTOLs.