by Michael Willoughby
A report detailing the financial and economic business case for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and its benefits for business aviation users has been unveiled by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) during its annual Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), which is taking place this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The report, titled Business Aviation Embraces Electric Flight, How Urban Air Mobility Creates Enterprise Value, was a joint undertaking of NBAA and NEXA Advisors, LLC and is a component of a larger study released in August 2019 – Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Economics and Global Markets 2020-2040.
Analysing 74 cities around the world, the study looked at the financial and economic business case for UAM. To determine the ability of metro areas to capitalise on the potential of eVTOLs, the study examined each city’s needs with regards to UAM, including infrastructure, regulation, GDP, congestion, current transportation networks and dozens of other factors.
With the introduction of eVTOL aircraft UAM is forecast to become an increasingly important part of our transportation system in the next few years.
“These reports highlight the potential of eVTOLs to transform short-range air transportation, especially for those companies and individuals that use business aviation,” said NBAA Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation Mike Nichols, CAM, co-author of both the study and the white paper.
“These companies are expected to be among the first eVTOL users because these vehicles will solve the ‘last mile’ or ‘door-to-door’ challenge by moving people quickly from a company office, to meetings in city centres that are near to existing heliports or newly constructed vertiports, or to outlying airports so passengers can depart on a business aircraft or scheduled airline flight.”
Michael Dyment, NEXA Advisors Managing Partner and co-author added: “We have long known that business aviation creates significant enterprise value for many of the world’s top performing companies… We now know that the addition of eVTOL aircraft to business aviation operators will further increase their productivity and mobility. This translates into a positive impact on long-term enterprise value.”
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