Falcon Aviation Services and EVE to develop eVTOL UAM services in Dubai

The agreement, signed in April, will see deliveries of the eVTOL fleet start in 2026. The aircraft will initially be used to operate tourist flights from Atlantis, The Palm resort, ahead of the wider development of an urban air mobility (UAM) network in the UAE ‘in partnership with local stakeholders and authorities’.

Captain Ramandeep Oberoi, Chief Operating Officer of Falcon, said: “We are ecstatic to partner with Eve and be the first operator of eVTOL in Dubai & the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.”

Thriving interest in eVTOL technology worldwide

The partnership is one of a number of schemes aiming to utilize the rapidly evolving eVTOL technology – others include a venture between Malaysia’s Aerotree Group and China’s EHang Holdings to develop a UAM network in Malaysia, announced in May 2022; a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between eVTOL developer Overair and the Bristow Group to commercialize Overair’s Butterfly aircraft, signed in December 2021; and an MoU between eVTOL developer Volocopter and mobility provider Kakao Mobility to conduct a feasibility study on introducing UAM technology in South Korea, signed in November 2021.

While the majority of efforts to implement eVTOL technology have focused on the UAM sector, some, such as a partnership between Dufour Aerospace and Rega announced in September 2021, intend to develop eVTOL aircraft for air ambulance operations.

Aircraft leaser LCI also expressed its interest in the use of eVTOLs for ‘cargo, medical and passenger’ purposes when it signed a framework agreement with eVTOL firm BETA for the supply of up to 125 ALIA-250 aircraft in May 2022.