• 23 Jun 2024 11:51 AM
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The Middle East: Future Capital of eVTOL?

By Sergio Cecutta
Vertiflite, July/August 2024

Analyst Sergio Cecutta visited two recent advanced air mobility events in the Persian Gulf and gave his perspective. (Top photo: EHang demonstrated flights of its EH216-S production multicopter at DRIFTx. All photos by the author.)

During April in sunny Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at the DRIFTx mobility show, we witnessed a preview of a future vertiport, with three leading industry entrants—Archer, EHang and Joby—exhibiting their aircraft a few feet from each other. During May, the same scene played out in Riyadh, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), at the Future Aviation Forum.

Welcome to the new capital of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the Gulf countries.

The oil-rich countries are making a play to be at the forefront of the new revolution in air travel, urban air mobility (UAM), with a combination of friendly regulations, monetary incentives and the appealing promise of revenues for the cash-starved manufacturers as soon as the end of next year.

At DRIFTx, Archer announced a strategic deal with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) that foresees “hundreds of millions of dollars of incentives” to build, operate and scale an entire air taxi ecosystem in the emirate. This follows on the heels of previous company announcements to locate their regional headquarters in the Smart and Autonomous Vehicles Industry (SAVI) cluster and launch air taxi services with local helicopter operators Falcon Aviation and Air Chateau. To conclude several deals in the region, Archer announced in Riyadh a partnership with Etihad Aviation Training to recruit and train pilots in the region to fly their Midnight eVTOL.

In the ongoing competition between the two companies, Joby announced at DRIFTx a partnership with three Abu Dhabi government departments to launch an air-taxi ecosystem in the emirate. It follows their previous announcement of exclusive air-taxi services in the emirate of Dubai — a deal where there seems to be disputes about what the word “exclusive” means. Finally, at the Future Aviation Forum, Joby announced a partnership with Mukamalah Aviation, a subsidiary of national oil producer Aramco, to launch eVTOL business travel in Saudia Arabia.

With these deals, it seems UAE is pitching the two competitors against each other, making sure they will get the best deal for their investment from whomever enters service first. And now Saudia Arabia is emerging as an additional motivated player in the eVTOL market in the Gulf countries.

The show also saw the entire EHang product line making an appearance both at a dedicated stand and on the flight line outside, where they demonstrated their EH216-S autonomous, two-passenger eVTOL. The company also signed a partnering agreement with the Multi Level Group (MLG) and ADIO to promote eVTOL transportation and business activities with local partners, including manufacturing; flight operations; research and development; training; and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO).

In the coming years, the region may become the first place in the world to see eVTOL developers from the three leading regions—the US, Europe and China—compete for market share.

Finally, at the Future Aviation Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Eve Air Mobility signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Saudia Technic, the leading MRO service provider in the Middle East, to explore the potential demand for eVTOL MRO in the region.

If you had asked at this time last year where we would have foreseen the launch of commercial air taxi services at scale, one would have mentioned a US city, like Los Angeles or Miami. But now, a few months into the new year, it is clear that if you would like to board an air taxi from your flight and skip over the ground congestion, your earliest opportunity may be one of three cities in the Gulf, with Dubai in the lead.

See you all at the Al Maktoum International Airport vertiport next year! The only question is: will we be boarding Archer, EHang or Joby air taxis?

An album with additional photos from DRIFTx will be available later at www.gallery.vtol.org/albums.

About the Author
Sergio Cecutta is a partner and co-founder at SMG Consulting, an aerospace, defense and autotech consulting firm, where he leads the advanced air mobility (AAM) practice and oversees strategy, product management, market analysis and business development.