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| Eo Myeong-so, vice minister of land, infrastructure and transport, speaks during an agreement ceremony for the K-UAM Grand Challenge demonstration project at the Grand Hyatt Seoul hotel in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap |
Korea on course to commercialize air taxi in 2025
By Baek Byung-yeul
Hyundai Motor and three mobile carriers ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus ― are vying for leadership in urban air mobility (UAM) as they prepare to kick off demonstration projects for air taxi service, which is expected to begin commercial operation in 2025, according to the government and the companies, Wednesday.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held an agreement ceremony in Seoul for what it calls the K-UAM Grand Challenge, a demonstration project for the air taxi service.
Companies will participate in the first phase of the demonstration project by building their own consortiums. A total of seven consortiums will demonstrate their abilities in three categories: UAM aircraft, UAM air traffic management and vertiport which are launch bases specially designed for aircraft that take off and land vertically.
Before the commercialization of the service in 2025, the transport ministry will conduct the first phase of the demonstration project at an aircraft performance test station in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, from August to March 2024.
Consortiums that pass the first stage will move on to the second stage, which is conducting verification tests in urban-like environments from July 2024 to June 2025.
Powered by electricity, air taxis will take off and land vertically. The air taxi service is expected to offer a convenient means of transportation in complex urban areas once commercialized.
With the United States, France and the U.K. set to begin their UAM demonstration projects in 2024, the government aims to proceed with its own UAM commercialization project to secure a future growth engine in the emerging business and assure safety of the service.
"Competition among leading countries to preoccupy the UAM business will become fiercer. It is most important for domestic companies to take the lead in the global market," said Eo Myeong-so, vice minister of land, infrastructure and transport.
Among the consortiums, Hyundai Motor Group teamed up with KT and Hyundai E&C. The automotive group will test connections between air taxi passengers, aircraft and various mobility platforms.
KT will be in charge of testing UAM traffic management systems, telecommunications infrastructure and data-sharing platforms while Hyundai E&C will be responsible for verification the building of vertiports.
Together with Hanwha Systems and Korea Airports Corp., SK Telecom will also conduct the verification process. The consortium, called K-UAM Dream Team, will test telecommunication systems as well as traffic management systems and construct vertiports.
LG Uplus will join the test operations along with Kakao Mobility, GS E&C and the British aircraft maker Vertical Aerospace. LG Uplus also joined hands with Busan Metropolitan City for the commercialization of air taxi service in the southeastern port city by 2026.
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