Private airports group Corporacion America Airports is working with rival eVTOL aircraft developers Eve and Vertical Aerospace on plans to develop a network of vertiports in Latin America and Europe. The company said it has been working on conceptual designs for eVTOL air taxi operating bases since 2021 and believes some of these could be located its chain of 53 airports in countries, including Argentina, Uruguay, Italy, and Brazil.
Under its collaboration with Vertical Aerospace, which is developing the four-passenger VX4 eVTOL, it is also working with several of Vertical's customers, including leasing group Avolon, Brazilian airline Gol, and transport company Grupo Comporte. This work is focused on identifying vertiport sites in Brazil, where Gol and Grupo Comporte plan to operate 250 of the all-electric aircraft on routes of around 100 miles from 2025.
The partnership with Eve spans Latin America and Europe. It will start with an assessment of the readiness of the existing ground infrastructure for eVTOL air taxi services and studies into the regulatory environment. Eve recently conducted urban air mobility trial operations using helicopters flown by one of its prospective customers, Helisul Aviation, and used these to prepare a proposed concept of operations.
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