Urban Blue, a project focused on sustainable mobility set up by our subsidiaries Aeroporti di Roma and Aeroports de la Cote d’Azur in partnership with Aeroporto di Venezia and Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi di Bologna, has been launched today for the development of urban air mobility infrastructures at the international level.
The company, which will be open to new industrial, technological and financial partners for the progressive expansion of UAM in various geographic areas, in addition to Italy and France, will be concerned with studying, designing, building and managing the infrastructures - also known as vertiports - essential to allow electric vertical take-off aircraft (e-VTOL) to connect airports with built-up areas and promote intra-city mobility, promoting the decongestion of traffic in urban centres.
The company will rely on the industrial partnership started in 2020 with Volocopter, the first company in the world to develop and operate e-VTOL aircraft for the transport of passengers and goods within urban areas, with high potential as the first-mover for the reference certifications.
The initial network of vertiports will include the reference areas of the founding partners and may be extended to other geographies of interest; in particular, the start of operations in Rome, Nice and Venice is currently planned by 2024. Indeed, these urban areas have already an high market potential as world interest destinations, in addition to presenting elements particularly suitable for the first developments of this form of mobility, such as favourable weather conditions (which increases the operability of aircraft eVTOL) and flat or coastal surroundings.
In an initial phase, Urban Blue will carry out technical-economic feasibility studies and masterplans, in coordination with all the stakeholders of the new ecosystem, preparatory to the authorisation phase and the subsequent construction and management of the vertiports.