Advanced air mobility infrastructure group Skyports recently acquired one of only two public heliports in London. The facility, which is close to the UK capital’s Canary Wharf financial district, will now be developed as a potential vertiport for eVTOL aircraft.
The landing site, which is operating under the name Skyports London Heliport, will continue to be available to helicopter operators. Skyports purchased it for an undisclosed sum from private owners who had operated it as the Falcon Heliport.
Skyports says it will start using the facility to evaluate vertiport operations and equipment as part of its plans to provide infrastructure for eVTOL air taxi services in the UK and other countries. Last year, the UK-based company announced plans to develop a vertiport in the north London suburb of Brent Cross, and it is also working on prospective sites in the U.S., France, South Korea, and Singapore.
Flight time in an eVTOL aircraft from the heliport, on the east side of the city, is estimated at 20 minutes to any of the London airports and 50 minutes to Bristol in the west of England.
According to Skyports, eVTOL aircraft will be quieter, less expensive, and more environmentally sustainable than existing helicopters. “The acquisition demonstrates our ambition to deliver a network of operational landing sites for eVTOLs and our commitment to making the UK a leader in the decarbonization of domestic aviation,” said Skyports’ head of Europe and the Middle East, Damian Kysely. “The heliport will also provide us with an important live operating environment in which we can safely develop and test our vertiport systems, collect operational data, and mature our vertiport technologies.”
The city’s other heliport is in Battersea on the west side of central London. It is owned by David and Simon Reuben, who also own Oxford Airport in the UK.
