Miami aims to have urban air mobility public transportation services by 2024, according to plans announced this week by the South Florida city’s mayor, Francis Suarez. Via social media, he confirmed a March 1 meeting with Adam Goldstein and Brett Adcock, cofounders of eVTOL aircraft developer Archer Aviation. Also at the meeting was former Uber Elevate executive Nikhil Goel, who left the ride-hailing group in 2020 to launch his own business.
The mayor’s office has not confirmed whether it has reached a firm agreement to launch services with Archer, which last month announced plans to establish an air taxi network in Los Angeles using its four-seat all-electric eVTOL design, which is due to be certified for commercial operations by 2024. The aircraft is expected to be able to fly up to around 60 miles at up to 150 mph. The company told FutureFlight it had no further comment to make on the meeting with Mayor Suarez.
Last year, Miami-Dade County teamed with a company called CoMotion to launch a project known as C-Lab Miami to boost mobility and transportation services across South Florida. This group also included Uber and Joby Aviation, which is developing an eVTOL aircraft that will compete directly with the Archer design. Joby, which like Archer is based in California, also intends to operate air taxi services, but the company has not stated where it will launch them.
In November 2020, German eVTOL aircraft developer Lilium announced plans to develop a 2,000-mile air mobility network across the most populous parts of central and southern Florida. Orlando’s Lake Nona community will be the first site for one of 10 or more vertiports and the company said that other locations are set to be announced in the spring.
Lilium is partnering with Spanish airports group Ferrovial to develop ground infrastructure. The company said that the majority of Florida’s 21 million population will live within 30 minutes of one of its vertiports and that further demand for flights is expected from visitors to the state, which total more than 125 million annually.
The five-seat Lilium Jet prototype has fixed wings and can support flights of up to 186 miles. However, multiple reports have indicated that the production version of the aircraft will be a seven-seater. The company has not disputed this prediction but has yet to provide details, including how far this aircraft will be able to fly.
Another German eVTOL pioneer, Volocopter, said it intends to launch U.S. services with its two-seat VoloCity aircraft, which can fly only on local urban routes of up to around 22 miles. It named Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York as examples of American cities it plans to serve.
In November 2019, Blade Urban Air Mobility introduced helicopter services from Miami-area airports to a variety of high-end Miami Beach hotels, with a motorboat transfer for the last stage. However, the company website no longer offers these flights.
