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

  • Smarter transport remains key to smart cities
    January 9, 2018
    Colin Sowman looks at some of the challenges and solutions that will provide enhanced transport efficiency in tomorrow’s smarter cities. However you define a ‘smart city’, one of the key ingredients will be an efficient transport system. As most governments and city authorities face financial constraints, incremental improvements in the existing systems is the most likely way forward. In London, new trains and signalling are improving the capacity of the Underground but that then reveals previously
  • Adoption of ITS fuelled by need to tackle traffic issues, says research
    October 19, 2016
    The revenue of the global intelligent transportation systems market stood at US$20.22 billion in 2015 and the market is expected to reach US$57.44 billion by the end of the forecast period, developing at a CAGR of 12.7 per cent during the forecast period, according to research by Transparency Research (TMR). According to the report, Intelligent Transportation System Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016-2024, on the basis of type, advanced transportation managem
  • Ohmio to produce self-driving vehicles in New Zealand
    September 12, 2017
    Ohmio Automotion has launched in New Zealand to begin production of self-driving vehicles in the country, using technology developed by Australian parent company HMI Technologies. The electric Ohmio Hop shuttles are self-driving, fully electric autonomous vehicles which Ohmio says can form a connected convoy, enabling them to be used as a scalable public transport solution. They have been designed to be a last mile solution, carrying people and their luggage short distances, providing the last mile conn
  • Maintaining momentum: learning lessons from the London Olympics
    November 15, 2013
    Japan will not only host this year’s ITS World Congress but has been selected for the 2020 Olympics. So what can Japan, and indeed Brazil, learn from the traffic management for London 2012 - Geoff Hadwick finds out. It was a key moment when Olympic boss Jacques Rogge signed off London 2012, calling the Games “happy and glorious.” Scarred by the logistical disaster of Atlanta 1996 and the last-minute building panic for Athens 2008, Rogge clearly thought London 2012 was an object lesson in how to plan and