Skip to main content

Mott MacDonald and UrbanV plan to fly high with AAM projects

Companies set to develop vertiports for 'fast, efficient, safe and clean' transport option
By Adam Hill November 10, 2023 Read time: 2 mins
Global ambition: Mott MacDonald and UrbanV (image: Mott MacDonald | UrbanV)

Mott MacDonald and vertiport designer UrbanV are partnering to develop advanced air mobility (AAM) infrastructure worldwide. 

AAM uses electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to move people and goods, and UrbanV plans to enable a route from Fiumicino Airport to Rome city centre by the end of 2024.

Mott MacDonald is already working across the world on several projects, and supported a consortium planning a network of at least 25 vertiports in the UK.

Project principal Horacio Rossi says: “Our team has experience of developing the strategic direction for vertiports, through to masterplans for its size, terminal buildings, energy centre, airfield layout, and safe and efficient operations, as well as crucial connections with other modes of transport."

Carlo Tursi, CEO of UrbanV, says the company - established by Aeroporti di Roma, Save Group, Aeroports de la Côte d’Azur and Aeroporto di Bologna - wants to be a global operator of vertiport networks, "starting from Italy and France, where we are working together with our founding shareholders to establish some of the first AAM routes worldwide".

AAM is "a fast, efficient, safe and clean alternative to existing transport solutions for people and goods over short distances, by air", he adds.

According to Precedence Research, the global market size of AAM was valued at $8.9$ billion last year and is projected to be worth around $45.12 billion by 2030.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Moia’s ride pooling concept plans to replace 1 million cars on roads
    December 6, 2017
    Moia, the mobility startup from Volkswagen Group, has introduced a fully electric six-seated car as part of its ride pooling concept that plans to replace 1 million cars and reduce congestion on major cities in Europe and the USA by 2025. The car, unveiled at TechCrunch in Berlin, will launch in Hamburg at the end of next year. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Volkswagen Osnabrück planned, developed and built the Moia car, which according to WLTP-standard has a range of more than 300km and can be charged
  • Prime Minister’s ‘roads revolution’ good news for industry
    November 11, 2014
    Responding to the UK Prime Minister’s announcement which outlined a ‘roads revolution,’ the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has said that plans to deliver roads improvements across the country are good news for the freight and logistics industry. David Cameron stated that plans for the biggest road building programme for almost half a century will be unveiled in next month's Autumn Statement and would contain a US$24 billion overhaul of 100 of Britain's busiest roads and motorways by the end of the
  • International project to develop ways of reducing spread of disease by transport
    April 27, 2016
    PANDHUB, a three-year international project coordinated by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, is developing ways of reducing the risk of pandemics and managing other high-threat pathogen incidents in transport hubs. The objective of the project is to assess threats, to forecast and to model and develop preparedness and ways to limit the spread of serious high-threat infections in transport hubs, such as airports and underground and train stations. The project also involves testing and developing
  • Integrated transport network proposed for Montréal
    April 25, 2016
    DPQ Infra, a subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, has unveiled for its Réseau électrique métropolitain (REM), an integrated public transportation project. Under the proposal, the REM will link downtown Montréal, the South Shore, the West Island (Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue), the North Shore (Deux-Montagnes) and the airport in a unified, fully automated, 67km light rail transit (LRT) system comprising 24 stations and operating 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. The solution proposed by CDPQ Infra wi