Air Taxi Readiness Index 2024

The Air Taxi Readiness Index (ATRI), now in its fourth iteration, is a tool to help measure the level of preparedness for the upcoming generation of passenger- and cargo-carrying Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) vehicles in 60 selected territories. It is a composite index that combines nearly 50 individual, existing metrics from a range of sources into a single score. The metrics are arranged across five pillars:

• consumer acceptance;
• infrastructure;
• policy & legislation;
• technology & innovation; and
• business opportunity.

Each territory receives a score for each pillar, and these are aggregated into totals at the national level which we then convert to relative rankings among the 60 territories⁽¹⁾

Scores are based on normalized results from pre-existing KPMG and third-party secondary sources (end noted), with weighting applied to reflect metric relevance as a proxy. The index is to be used to form comparisons between countries’ preparedness levels for regional air mobility adoption and to stimulate thought and debate. It is not meant to be exhaustive or definitive in terms of predicting air taxi or logistics adoption rates. Its intended audience is public and private bodies alike looking to understand the benefits of early adoption of this technology, and the suitability of different territories for relevant pilots and commercial investment. We use short / vertical take-off and landing (‘S/VTOL’) and ‘air taxi’ interchangeably throughout, referring to vehicles capable of short-haul airspace passenger or cargo transportation, piloted or unpiloted.

Players in the next-gen aerial mobility space have moved beyond the peak of the hype cycle to face the long grind of building viable businesses. Inevitably, not all will succeed; the past twelve months have seen a number of prominent names forced to raise additional cash, while signature events

such as Volocopter’s publicized plans for air taxis over Paris during the Olympics have not materialized as planned, and have even faced significant hostility.^2,3

As a consequence, we have witnessed a sectoral shift of focus to the Gulf as operators rush to deploy aircraft to satisfy real-world use cases, and where the funding landscape and end consumer affluence allows. This pivot is reflected in a number of recent developments in the UAE and Saudi Arabia:

• Joby Aviation announced that it is planning to start commercial air taxi flights in Dubai by late 2025.⁴
• Archer Aviation signed a framework agreement with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office, involving in-country manufacturing and the construction of vertiports as well as substantial investments in its air taxi services, which aiming to launch in 2025.⁵
• EHang announced plans to expand its operations to the UAE, having received type certification for its EH216-S air taxi – which it has also trialled for pilotless air taxi services to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.^6,7
• Saudia, the national airline of Saudi Arabia, has signed a deal with Lilium to purchase up to 100 electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) jets, to be used to enhance transportation for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims and provide access to sports and entertainment events in Saudi Arabia.⁸
• Volocopter previously announced it had successfully conducted flight tests of its eVTOL aircraft, VoloCity, in Saudi Arabia’s NEOM region, in an initiative aiming to develop NEOM as a leading hub for urban air mobility.⁹

This shift in emphasis is partly reflected in our rankings, with both the UAE and Saudi registering significant upward moves as they position themselves as air taxi leaders. However, whilst such markets are important to operators under pressure to establish business models, demonstrate concept proofs to investors, and build public confidence in air taxi services, both Saudi and the UAE are still outside the top ten according to our business opportunity pillar.

Long term success at scale will require operators to look beyond the high-net-worth individual market and develop mass consumer businesses in the world’s major opportunity hubs in Western Europe, China, and the US.

The pressure is intensifying to secure mission-critical regulatory approvals, but the regulatory landscape remains complex and fluid, necessitating close collaboration with aviation authorities to ensure safety and compliance. Operators also have their work cut out to educate and persuade a sceptical public on safety, noise, and sustainability, and to reduce costs sufficiently to serve broad passenger demographics. As a consequence, realistic timeframes for mass deployment remain over five years away, and the huge variety in jurisdictional profiles means that understanding the specific air taxi readiness of particular markets remains critical to all stakeholders.

Given the huge complexity inherent in such a global technological, social and regulatory evolution, understanding the air taxi readiness of particular jurisdictions is of value to all stakeholders. We now outline the 5 pillars used to score territories and follow this with a number of case studies representing the territories of KPMG’s own Future of Flight core community.

Air taxi readiness is of course not perfectly measurable by this or any other attempt, nor can readiness alone determine a market’s ultimate importance to any individual operator or investor strategy. Right now, air taxi operators face a formidable range of challenges to deploy assets in working markets and demonstrate commercial viability before exhausting investor patience. In the last year, we have witnessed a sectoral pivot towards the Middle East with this objective in mind, and the world is moving closer to seeing the first working models flying paying customers. However, the sector will need to be able to serve broader customer demographics if it is to realize its full potential, which will entail the hard work of building public trust, overcoming safety concerns, and establishing pricing models that make air taxi services accessible.