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

  • The long road to Spanish enlightenment
    October 22, 2018
    Julián Núñez, immediate past president of ASECAP, gets his teeth into the vision of a European strategy for toll roads. David Arminas reports from Madrid. Getting European politicians to agree to a long-term cross-border highway infrastructure programme for toll roads is extremely difficult. It’s a bit like pulling teeth: people want to avoid the pain. But pain is something that Spanish operators, including Abertis, OHL, ACS, FCC and Acciona, have been going through for the past decade. The country has
  • Jeddah juggles transport needs of residents, pilgrims and tourists
    December 22, 2015
    Mass pilgrimages, new tourists and a growing population lead Jeddah to seek some smart transport solutions as David Crawford finds out. Rationalising traffic movement and public transport in a major Middle Eastern business and tourist centre that is also a gateway for millions of religious pilgrims every year is the challenge for the 20-year Jeddah Strategic Plan and the Jeddah Public Transport Programme (JPTP) it spawned. The latter is costed at US$8bn.
  • Connecting people and mobility
    February 3, 2012
    Stéphane Petti, Business Development Manager - Automotive, at Orange Business Services' International M2M Center, says that the ITS industry can no longer afford to ignore the telecommunications industry's role in connecting people and mobility services. To telephone companies (telcos), the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) sector is nothing new. Worldwide, they have been focusing considerable attention on M2M in all its sub-segments for several years now. It is the migration of M2M from fixed to wireless connectivi
  • Editor's comment: 'Workforce must see leaders who look like themselves'
    December 15, 2022
    Diversity is vital for the future of transportation businesses everywhere, says Adam Hill