With the number of passenger drones taking flight tipped to hit 3,000 by 2025, Singapore is positioning itself early on to gain market share in the rapidly growing urban air mobility segment.
In an exclusive interview with Singapore Business Review, Kysely discusses how they plan to make this futuristic vision come to life in the city state . At Skyports, I’m able to use my expertise and experience whilst working with air taxi and cargo drone manufacturers, real estate owners, regulators and cities to build the right infrastructure in the right places to enable this exciting new mode of transport to benefit citizens of the world’s major cities.
Given your experiences on spotting disused rooftop potential, would you say that Singapore has a lot of under-utilised helipads that can be used for air taxi operations?: Singapore is one of those cities where helipads are scarce. The only public-use helipad was on the Swissotel, which is not being used anymore. With regards to under-utilised rooftops, Singapore is very good at utilising its built environment efficiently.
What factors do you consider when it comes to building the infrastructure for UAM? Can you share with us the strengths of your infrastructure and service quality? How important is getting infrastructure right?We’ve developed a very rigorous process for assessing sites for their suitability to accommodate a vertiport.
I suspect that the companies you’re referring to operate traditional helicopters which can be quite noisy and expensive to operate, which is one of the reasons why helicopter traffic is not very common in Singapore. Electric air taxis, such as Volocopter, bring an entire new paradigm and possibilities for urban aviation. These vehicles will be quieter, safer and cheaper to operate, offering Singapore an alternative mode of transportation which is highly complementary to its MRT.