Kenya lifts longstanding mandatory wearing of masks

The mandatory wearing of masks has now been lifted, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe has announced.

“However, people should maintain social distancing to ensure risk of spread is limited,” he said.

He however encouraged the wearing of masks during indoor functions to curb the spread of Covid-19 disease.

“All Kenyans to continue to adhere to social measures, ensure frequent hand washing, sanitising and exercise personal responsibility,” he said.

“There has been a lot of debate on facemasks.  Wearing of facemasks in open places is now lifted.”

Kagwe said Kenyans should be strict with ministry of heath protocols of sanitisation when in places that are not open.

“If you are going to eat in a meat joint, the standards must be high. The sanitation, washing of hands must be top notch,” he said.

“You must respect the people eating in your joint. You must respect your customers and make sure it is clean. There will be penalties if that does not happen.”

Speaking when he addressed the media on Friday, Kagwe said worship places will have a full capacity provided the congregants are vaccinated.

Kenya reported 323, 140 cases of Covid-19 and 5,644 deaths but the inoculation rate remains low, with only 28.5 percent of the adult population fully vaccinated as of March 10, 2022, according to the latest Ministry of Health figures.

The Ministry of Health imposed a nationwide mask mandate on April 3, 2020, at the height of Covid-19 infections.

The National Police Service moved to enforce the regulations alongside social distancing guidelines.

Some regulations such as curfew, social distancing were later lifted amid an economic outcry.

President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the decision to lift the curfew during Mashujaa Day last year.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late on Thursday said some 98% of the US population live in locations where Covid-19 levels are low enough that people do not need to wear masks indoors.

The CDC on Feb. 25 dramatically eased its COVID-19 guidelines for when Americans should wear masks indoors, saying they could drop them in counties experiencing what it described as low or medium COVID-19 levels. 

Last month, the CDC initially said 70% of counties covering 72% of Americans could drop masks. The latest update says 98% of Americans who live in 94% of U.S. counties can ditch masks.

The revised figures may give ammunition to critics who want the administration to lift mask requirements on airplanes, trains and in transit hubs.

Source: The Star

Landlocked Africa seeks competitive rates and sustained air cargo capacity

An increasingly competitive landscape and high airfreight costs have put pressure on air cargo in some landlocked parts of Africa.

Most African shipments are perishables, but for mining economies such as Zambia, which is landlocked in southern Africa, mining-related materials, as a percentage of total imports, have declined in recent years.

Generally, there has been a steady decline of imports and exports since 2018 in the country. Imports to year-end 2021 were down 25%, and exports down 15% over the same period, according to data from NAC2000 Corporation, the only ISAGO registered and certified airport ground services provider in Zambia.

“We observed that due to absence of capacity and prohibitive airfreight cost we have seen mining equipment being progressively sourced and stored via sea and road through depots in South Africa, and trucked within the region, with most non-urgent mining cargo sent by sea and road, much less by airfreight,” said Jonathan Lewis, managing director at NAC2000.

Additional data shows that imports are reducing from a ratio of 80% imports and 20% exports in 2018 to 70:30% respectively in 2021, due mainly to an increase in export volumes primarily in fruit, vegetables and flowers, mainly to the UK and EU, and to a lesser extent regional shipments of live chicks and hatching eggs. Imports were mainly bolstered by an influx of pharmaceuticals and PPE due to the pandemic, but Covid vaccines remain of negligible volumes and have no meaningful impact on import figures.

With GDP across Africa expected to double in 20 years, air travel will inevitably lead to increased trade, and consequently air cargo will benefit – but trade barriers between African countries have historically hindered progress. But now with agreements such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) there is hope for more intra-African trade.

Increased continental trade could foster a more competitive manufacturing sector to create opportunities for industries, including air freight and associated handling.

“My concern is the pace at which this will happen for airfreight regionally,” said Mr Lewis. “I believe that there is potential to leap forward the pace of this trade and development through airfreight, especially for perishable and urgent cargo.”

Mr Lewis reckoned AfCFTA will have less impact for air freight without deliberate implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) and developing more point-to-point routes within the region and continent. “It would be advantageous for Africa’s air transport industry stakeholders to get in on this forecasted movement of cargo with competitive rates, capacity and routes.”

Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa were the most affected in terms of capacity due to the flight restrictions that were imposed on the region at the outset of the Covid Omicron variant. Most cargo from Zambia typically moves on passenger services with regular scheduled services operated by Ethiopian, Kenya Airways, Emirates, Qatar Airways and SAA.

Typically, in the Zambian context, monthly passenger numbers rise by 25% in December each year, but in the aftermath of the flight restrictions from the Omicron variant December 2021 saw a fall in aircraft handling, with a 36% dip in monthly passenger numbers, and overall, 64% less than the pre-Covid passenger levels. Mr Lewis reported that cargo had equally been adversely affected, down by 15% in December compared to pre-Covid, but strikingly January 2022 was down by 40%, to its lowest in seven years.

Mr Lewis explained that costs went up as players monopolised routes, drowning out the usual strong demand for perishable exports – but not the premium in freight charges.

“Knee-jerk reactions are very dangerous to our export freight supply chain that supports the perishable exports industry. If it is damaged by an unfeasible supply chain, it will take years to recover – or they could lose their businesses all together.”

Looking ahead, Mr Lewis believed the sector should be looking at sustained, stable growth at manageable rates, otherwise the ever-important flora and horticulture export industry for one will face even more challenges in the future.

Source: The Lordstar

I Fly Air Launches Flights to Wajir amid KAA’s KSh800 Million Expansion

I Fly Air airline has launched daily direct flights to Wajir, even as the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) says it is fast-tracking the expansion of Wajir International Airport, seeking to separate military from civilian operations.

Speaking during the launch of I Fly Air’s maiden flight to Wajir, KAA MD Alex Gitari said they have invested over KSh800 million in renovating the runways at the airport, with their focus now shifting to the terminals.

Gitari argues that with the increased traffic brought by I Fly Air, there is need to expand the airport and its amenities.

I Fly Air says their expansion to Wajir seeks to facilitate seamless travel for business people travelling to and from Wajir as there was no daily return flight before. The airline will also offer cargo services to its customers, albeit is small numbers.

The airline is further looking to expand its routes in the coming months to Mombasa, Ukunda, and Malindi as they increase their fleet.

Source: Kenya Wallstreet

Covid in UAE: Masks no longer mandatory at Expo 2020 Dubai

Expo 2020 Dubai Covid-19 preventive measures will continue to include the mandatory wearing of masks indoors.

While event organisers do not mandate the wearing of masks at outdoor public areas, guests and staff are encouraged to continue to do so at popular entertainment venues with large attendance.

Health and safety remains a key priority, with stringent rules in place across the site. All Expo visitors ages 18 and above must show either proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test result taken within the previous 72 hours, while on-site measures include mask-wearing for visitors, staff and participants, and PCR testing facilities for Country Pavilion staff, frontline workers, and entertainers.

The Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management on Saturday, January 26, announced updates to Covid-19 precautionary measures in the UAE, according to WAM, the UAE state news agency.

Source: Khaleej Times

Amadeus Waves Off Concerns About Airlines’ Direct Distribution Push

Amadeus makes a plausible case that it will come out ahead after all the ongoing changes to how airlines distribute their tickets to travel agencies evolve.

For years, Amadeus has faced the risk of disintermediation — meaning the risk of airlines trying to kick it out of the distribution chain. But the world’s largest middleman for airline tickets said on Friday that it expects to fend off the threat of direct distribution for at least the foreseeable future.

During an earnings call, analysts quizzed executives at Madrid-based Amadeus about the risks posed by an airline push to connect directly to online travel agencies such as eDreams and Priceline and travel management companies such as American Express Global Business Travel.

Luis Maroto, president and CEO, waved away the concerns. He said he didn’t expect the new distribution push to hurt the company overall.

“We expect it to be a neutral or positive to our P&L [profit and loss] with different models and different negotiations with airlines,” Maroto said.

Maroto acknowledged “that there may be specific points of direct connecting in different markets.” And he said, “there may be specific contracts that we will try, of course, to convince both parties that doing with us will be better from an economic and practical point of view and an aggregation point of view.”

When it comes to the threat of direct distribution, travel tech distribution incumbents have had two key defenses: travel agency trust of their networks as a least-bad option and airline executives not making distribution a top priority.

Those factors help explain why investors have rewarded Amadeus with a share price equal to the one it had in the pre-pandemic year of 2018 — even though the company suffered net losses in 2020 and 2021.

For full-year 2021, Amadeus produced approximately $3 billion (€2.67 billion) in revenue, reflecting a decline of 52 percent compared with 2019 revenue. The company suffered a net loss of about $137.8 million (€122.6 million).

In the fourth quarter, Amadeus generated approximately $909 million (€809.8 million) in revenue. Its adjusted net profit was $42.9 million (€38.2 million).

Modest Airline Direct Push

The latest airline attempt to form direct connections with agencies has confusingly become mixed up with an airline industry effort to push for modernization of how third parties sell their tickets.

This effort — which goes by the airline industry name of the new distribution capability, or NDC — is technically about setting up new standards for how industry computers communicate with each other. But metaphorically, the new distribution capability is about airlines wanting to replace pipes essentially exclusively owned by Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport with pipes that are flexible enough to connect in a variety of ways. The goal is to make both direct and indirect distribution cheaper and easier.

Rather than fight the new distribution capability, Amadeus decided to invest in it. Recent research reports by major investment banks have had a consensus view that the company has gotten ahead of its peers Sabre and Travelport in adopting the new processes.

“Direct connect has been here for a long time,” Maroto said. “But still we expect the volumes will come through us, the GDSes [global distribution systems], and will be part of our normal way of doing business.”

In theory, airlines that invest in new technologies can take advantage of more modern ways of displaying and bundling their products. They now have a choice of either using Amadeus’s traditional pipes, its new distribution capability pipes, or the new distribution capability pipes of other third-party aggregators, such as Accelya, AirGateway, or Duffel.

In practice, only a handful of airlines, such as Lufthansa and Finnair, have been enthusiastic about investing in the new technologies and processes. The new distribution capability has had a slow uptake by travel management companies, which have to do their part to fully consume the content via the new methods.

“With regards to NDC, we expect this penetration to be low for the coming years,” Maroto said. “We are in some areas implementing NDC as part of our contracts. But still, there are a lot of parts of the inventory that will require time to be really implemented on NDC. So it’s still low. [NDC] volumes are not having an impact on our economics positively or negatively.”

In the fourth quarter, Amadeus signed three new airlines to new distribution capability agreements: Avianca, Malaysia Airlines, and Emirates. That brought its total to “more than 20” new distribution capability content distribution agreements signed to date. Amadeus also said it is making progress with American Airlines’ new distribution capability technology integration in North American points of sale.

Center of Gravity Shifting Within Amadeus Units

One key question is whether Amadeus will lose transaction volumes over time if the more modern retailing methods catch fire with airlines.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Wood asked Maroto if airline NDC volumes are being executed on global distribution system [GDS] platforms or if they’re starting to be executed on aggregator platforms away from the GDSes?

Maroto said there were different ways for travel agencies to access content, and Amadeus’ strategy was to be great at all of them.

“On top of that, being an airline IT provider means also having many advantages in the way you can operate with this connectivity of access of content of NDC,” Maroto said.

To oversimplify, Maroto implied that changes in how airlines want to distribute their tickets might benefit Amadeus’s Airline IT division even if the changes might cause some relative loss in the company’s traditional distribution unit.

By implication, Maroto effectively said that, even in the worst-case scenario where the unit economics of distribution might become less profitable for some airline contracts compared with traditional ones over time, Amadeus might be insulated overall.

The company may gain from a strengthened business in its sales of a suite of software services affiliated with its passenger service systems, which help airlines board passengers. The company expects it will drive more airline spending on its airline IT services looking ahead.

This dynamic may benefit Amadeus relative to its peers. Amadeus’s airline IT services unit is larger than Sabre’s. Travelport doesn’t have an airline IT unit.

Maroto’s point echoed one made last month by Tom Klein, senior managing director at Certares, who used to be the CEO of distribution giant Sabre for many years, when speaking with Skift CEO Rafat Ali on-stage at Skift’s 2022 Megatrends event.

Klein said he was skeptical that significant change would come to airline distribution because airline executives care more about running their operations safely, efficiently, and with military-grade precision. For executives at the typical airline, distribution isn’t a top priority.

“Distribution gets talked about in the board room maybe once a year, at best,” Klein said. “That means it’s hard to change.”

Many Uncertainties Remain

Amadeus, like its peers, isn’t out of the pandemic crisis yet.

Broadly speaking, Amadeus profits more on sales of long-haul business flights than on any other type of travel, but that category has been hurt by the pandemic’s various effects. The company said it didn’t expect the pre-pandemic 2019 levels of international and corporate travel to return this year — nor will international corporate travel regain its share of the overall mix this year.

More positively, Till Streichert, chief financial officer, told an analyst that the company was more optimistic than IATA’s most recent forecast about the pace of recovery of international travel in general — based on the company’s early 2022 booking volumes.

One unknown factor is the impact of the Russian war in Ukraine and related geopolitical reactions. Sanctions on Russia might depress some Russian booking volumes.

Unspoken on the call with analysts was the danger that an ongoing war might disrupt airline operations on many international routes, reduce airspace access to transcontinental routes between West and East, and drive up jet fuel prices.

But long-term, it looks like Amadeus and its peer companies Sabre and Travelport are, in the words of The Economist, “the ineluctable middlemen.”

Source: Skift

Sabre Ends Distribution of Aeroflot Flights in Travel Tech Retreat From Russia

Sabre, a provider of airline information technology to Aeroflot, said on Thursday morning it would stop providing distribution services to the Russian flag carrier, essentially preventing it from selling tickets.

“We are taking a stand against this military conflict,” said Sean Menke, CEO of Sabre.

The moves come as part of a broader retreat from Russia. Expedia has stopped selling travel to and from Russia, Boeing has suspended major operations in Moscow, and multiple airlines have stopped flying to, and over, Russia. Meanwhile, enterprise software giant Oracle has “suspended all operations” in Russia while Apple has stopped selling its devices there.

“There’s likely one final action that can level, instantly, Russian commercial aviation,” tweeted Jon Ostrower of The Air Current on Tuesday before the announcements. “That’s Sabre, the IT backbone on which Aeroflot runs. No Sabre, no reservations. No reservations, no airline.”

While Russian airlines have been banned from North American and Western European airspace, they’ve been able to fly abroad in other directions. Removing Aeroflot from agency platforms made it harder for agents worldwide to book Aeroflot tickets. For internal domestic flights, travel agents can use Sirena, a Russian distribution player. Chinese buyers can use Travelsky.

Amadeus had the largest share of distribution in Russia, Sabre had the second-most, and Travelport had the third-most, according to statistics from Travelport that covered the past 12 months and the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

There are two sides to the services the tech vendors provide. One side is their reservation services used by hundreds of thousands of online and retail travel agencies and corporate travel management companies.

Amadeus and Sabre, but not Travelport, also provide passenger service systems to airlines to help run their operations, too.

“Reservations, passenger service, operations, network planning, and management are core automation, commercial, and operating systems, without which airlines cannot function, except minimally and manually,” said Robert Mann, an industry consultant.

Lastly, Amadeus and Sabre sometimes run “central reservation systems” for airlines, helping the airlines take bookings.

“It’s reasonable for GDSs to decide not to sell Russian flights if they so choose,” said Brett Snyder of Cranky Flier. “But it’s a lot harder to make the decision to turn off the airline reservation system. That effectively shuts the company down.”

Some analysts thought any action at this point would be superfluous.

“I give it five to seven days before domestic aviation is grounded,” said Mike Boyd, president of Boyd Group International. “With many planes repo’ed [being reposessed], with Boeing suspending parts, maintenance, and technical support services, and with passengers being hard up for cash, Russian airlines will mostly stop flying.”

However, Russia might try to follow a policy of carriers grounding two planes to use for spare parts for every plane it keeps in service, on average, according to Djois Franklin, CEO of Seatmaps, a Germany-based seat map data vendor. That policy could keep domestic aviation flying for much longer.

Some analysts noted that legal contracts can make things complicated.

“For example, Amadeus hosts the Russian airline S7,” said Eric Leopold of the aviation consultancy ThreeDot. “Will Amadeus suspend their service, meaning that S7 cannot board their flights? These relations are based on contracts, which are difficult to suspend unless there are clear sanctions to apply.”

“Our immediate focus remains the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and their families in Ukraine,” the Amadeus spokesperson said. “In light of the attacks on Ukraine, we immediately stopped any new planned commercial projects in Russia. At the same time, we continue to assess and evaluate the potential impact of international sanctions imposed on Russia and any counter-measures by Russia.

A Decision for IATA, Too

Mann also argued that the leading industry body the International Air Transport Association, or IATA, should stop facilitating payments and commerce for Russia-based airlines.

We asked that organization for comment.

“We comply with all sanction regimes applicable to us,” a spokesperson said. “This has reduced IATA’s business activity in Russia. Prior to the imposition of sanctions, some 140 airlines were doing business in Russia through the IATA BSP [billing and settlement plan].”

“As a result of the conflict and the sanctions, many people who purchased tickets will have had their trips canceled and will be seeking refunds, which would typically be processed through the BSP if the tickets were purchased through a travel agent,” the spokesperson said. “Closing the BSP would eliminate this recourse.”

Meanwhile, many travel tech companies, including Kiwi.com and Hopper and Sabre, have been donating money to relief efforts.

“To help support humanitarian programs in the region, Sabre, which has approximately 1,500 team members in Poland, has donated $1 million to the Polish Red Cross,” Menke of Sabre said.

Source: Skift

Kenya wins as UNEP directed to bring offices, meetings to Nairobi

Kenya has scored a major win after countries directed UNEP to return all its key departments to Nairobi.

Although UNEP is headquartered in Nairobi, African nations complained the Kenya office was just a shell because key departments are based in Europe, where their high-level meetings are held.

On Thursday, ministers who attended the UN Environment Assembly said this must stop. They signed a political declaration directing all these departments to return to Kenya and their meetings to be held in Nairobi. Other institutions affiliated with UNEP were asked to bring their meetings to Nairobi.

“[We invite] the governing bodies of all the multilateral environmental agreements, in particular those hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme, to consider convening, within their mandates, their meetings more frequently in Nairobi,” the ministers said.

They said not only must UNEP offices in Gigiri be upgraded, but all UN member states who have not joined the programme should now do so.

The ministers said the matter was already settled at the UN General Assembly, where members agreed to strengthen the Nairobi office.

“[We] invite all member states and members of specialised agencies who have not yet done so, to become accredited to the United Nations Environment Programme,” the resolution seen by the Star says.

“In that regard, take note with interest of the adoption of General Assembly resolution 76/246 and underline the need to continue improving the United Nations Office at Nairobi, as the only United Nations headquarters duty station in the global South and the host of the headquarters of the UNEP and, furthermore, invite the United Nations Office at Nairobi to provide more competitive services.”

In 2018, former UNEP executive director Eric Solheim resigned following revelations he was working in Europe, away from Nairobi, 80 per cent of the time. He also unofficially allowed chosen European staff to work from Europe rather than at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi.

An internal UN audit in 2018 showed Solheim alone had spent almost Sh56.95 million ($500,000) on air travel and hotels in just 22 months. He refunded the amount.

Yesterday, the ministers also stressed the importance of advancing equitable geographic distribution and gender parity among the staff of the secretariat of the UNEP, particularly in professional and senior-level positions.

Currently, Africans are underrepresented in those positions, although the body is based on the continent. UNEP will now be required to regularly report to the Committee of Permanent Representatives on progress achieved on the diversity of its staff.

The agreement was signed by heads of State and government, ministers and high-level representatives, at the special session of the UNEP to mark 50 years since its establishment at the KICC in 1972.

Mid last month, Kenya’s Permanent Representative to UNEP Makena Muchiri, complained some of the headquarters departments of UNEP are based in France and Geneva.

“We have been talking about how do we bring all that together to Nairobi where UNEP is headquartered,” she said.

“UNEP is a big organisation taking care of other international bodies that are headquartered here. So, you cannot push that agenda too much.”

Source: The Star

Air travel to East Africa will surpass pre-pandemic levels in 2024

According to a recently published report, inbound trips via air travel in East Africa, are set to surpass pre-pandemic levels by 8.8% in 2024. The industry analysts found that projected growth in air travel will be due to investment in airport infrastructure and East Africa’s global reputation for being one of the world’s best ecotourism and wildlife destinations.

The forecast builds on air travel’s substantial rise between 2009 and 2019. During this period, inbound air travel trips in East Africa increased at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.1%.

Despite the pandemic, East Africa is still globally recognized as one of the world’s leading tourism destinations. The region includes destinations such as Kenya, Madagascar, Ethiopia and Rwanda, amongst others. The destination witnessed a surge in inbound air travel in 2021 due to the easing of travel restrictions.

Based on what we have seen so far, inbound air arrivals will increase by 163% Year-over-Year (YoY) in 2021. This makes East Africa one of the fastest recovering regions globally for inbound air travel. Continued investment in airline partnerships and infrastructure is a major reason for this and they have become vital for connecting regional areas to the rest of the world.

The relationships established through codeshares and airline partnerships have been vital to East Africa’s tourism development success over the last decade. Many airlines will continue to make strategic connections with other airlines operating in the region, including legacy carriers such as Kenya Airways and low-cost carriers such as Mango Air and Fastjet.

Established carriers such as British Airways, Emirates and South African Airlines have deep partnerships with East African air carriers, helping connect them to desirable, high-spending source markets.

With new entrants in the market such as Ugandan Air looking to make strategic partnerships with global carriers, many destinations within the East Africa region will continue to become accessible to a worldwide market. Further developments within airport infrastructure will also be a key factor.

The Tourism Construction Project Database reports new airports are being constructed in Kigali and Rwanda, as well as a planned expansion to SSR International, Mauritius and $2.5 billion worth of nationwide airport upgrades across Uganda.

Source: E-Turbo New

New Travelport, Qatar Airways Distribution Agreement

LANGLEY UK – Travelport, a global technology company that powers travel bookings for hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotels worldwide, and Qatar Airways, one of the world’s leading global airlines, announced a comprehensive new long-term distribution agreement which will underpin the airline’s omni-channel, advanced retailing strategy. The expanded agreement will include, for the first time, NDC content and advanced travel merchandizing solutions – delivered via the next-generation Travelport+ platform.

In addition to extending a longstanding distribution agreement which delivers Qatar Airways content to Travelport-connected travel agencies globally, the agreement will also see Travelport distributing Qatar Airways’ NDC content. By enabling agencies to shop and book dynamic and personalized offers, this will enable the airline to offer differentiated value propositions closely tailored to micro customer segments. 

The contract now also includes the use of Travelport’s Rich Content and Branding solution. The technology provides travel agents with graphically rich images and descriptions on fares and ancillaries, equipping them to deliver an equally compelling brand experience, no matter the channel.

“We’re excited about the next chapter with Travelport supporting our growth ambitions,” said Thierry Antinori, Chief Commercial Officer at Qatar Airways. “As we look forward to the recovery in travel, we do not want to add additional obstacles such as surcharges, restrictions or inefficient technical solutions, as we deploy new NDC-based product offerings. Our aim is to provide a consistent shopping experience through all channels, to meet the expectations of our customers and promote the success of our travel trade partners.”

“As the world returns to travel, this is an opportune time to expand our decades-long relationship with Qatar Airways,” said Jason Clarke, Chief Commercial Officer, Travel Partners at Travelport. “We share a vision of modern digital travel retailing, and believe that this combination of NDC content, cutting-edge merchandizing technology, and advanced data intelligence – all made possible by our game-changing Travelport+ platform – will enable the agency sales channel to offer travelers the five-star service Qatar Airways is known for.”

Source: Travelport

Flying cars take off: How air taxis are about to revolutionise how we travel

It’s hard to decide whether flying taxis are arriving very late or extremely early. On the one hand, the promise of airborne cabs zipping between skyscrapers has been a science fiction staple for decades. On the other, it wasn’t long ago that air taxis were filed in the ‘we’ll see’ folder of future technology, alongside hoverboards and hotels on the Moon.

But after years of wishful thinking, it’s suddenly happening. Investment in advanced aerial mobility (as the sector is known) has more than tripled in the last year, and analysts at Morgan Stanley expect the global air taxi market to be worth £2.7tr by 2050.

Early or late, the future is en-route and will be coming into land sooner than the majority of people realise. Several companies around the world are currently preparing eVTOL vehicles (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles), which could revolutionise the way we get around big cities.

Quiet, comfortable, and carbon-free, eVTOLs promise to rise above congested roads, easing urban transport issues while getting passengers to their destinations in record time. Meanwhile, regulators on the ground are working hard to prepare the rules and infrastructure required to make this new form of transport feasible.

Air taxis

Many developers believe their vehicles will be safety certified and cleared for take off by 2025, if not sooner. Boeing, Airbus and Hyundai are some of the familiar names building air taxis. Another is Joby, which bought Uber Elevate, the ride-sharing giant’s foray into eVTOLs, in December 2020. Meanwhile, British firm Vertical claims to have the highest number of conditional pre-orders with the likes of Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines among the investors lining up for its VA-X4 vehicle.

“It’s going to be a quiet and pleasant, fast and efficient way of getting around,” says Andrew Macmillan, director of infrastructure at Vertical. “[The VA-X4] allows you to travel 100-plus miles [160km] at 200mph [322km/h]. It takes off vertically and then transitions to fly horizontally, giving you that range.”

The VA-X4 will carry four passengers and a pilot. In the rear, two pairs of people will sit facing each other like in the back of a London taxi. As a fare-payer, you can look out of the windows and chat with your fellow flyers without the need for ear protection or microphones. That’s because, like the majority of eVTOLS, the VA-X4 flies using quiet electric rotors that, per journey, produce less carbon than a Tesla travelling the same distance on the roads below.

Air taxis are not exactly the flying cars promised by The Jetsons, Blade Runner and Back To The Future, however. Rather, it’s electrified air travel scaled down to black cab proportions. It’s Uber for the skies. Think helicopters without the emissions or the reliance on one main rotor.

“Helicopters are amazing machines, but they’re quite noisy, they’re very expensive and they’re quite dangerous as well,” Macmillan says. “One of the reasons the VA-X4 is safe is that you’ve got eight rotors, all electric powered, and each of them has a separate motor. If you lose one, you don’t lose the vehicle.”

If eVTOLs are revolutionary in what they might do for urban transport, they’re more evolutionary in terms of the underlying technology. Electric propulsion, super-efficient batteries and lightweight composites underpin air taxi design and all of it comes from technologies being developed in tandem sectors.

“I think we’ve been able to reap some of the benefits of what’s been happening on the surface side of electric propulsion,” says Clint Harper, urban air mobility fellow at Urban Movement Labs, a non-profit designed to help facilitate future transport solutions in Los Angeles. “The overall design of the aircraft, how they fly, how they stay in the air, you know, we’re building off lessons that have been learnt over the last century of air travel.”

The point is that eVTOLs are not flying cars at all. “This is, in fact, aviation – the next evolution of it: a quieter, cleaner, more sustainable aviation,” says Harper’s colleague, Sam Morrissey, executive director of Urban Movement Labs. “Once we reframe it back to aviation, I think people understand how and why we’re going to see these new vehicles and this new technology as quickly as we’re going to.”

Integrating air taxis into cities

Urban Movement Labs is helping the city of Los Angeles prepare for the advent of eVTOLs. The famously horizontal city grew by sprawl and its freeways are known for traffic jams. Morrissey believes advanced air mobility could ease the problems on the ground and “make travel happen in a way that’s not [currently] physically possible.”

His example is travelling from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, 15 miles [24km] away. “It’s physically impossible to make that trip in under 30 minutes. But, say my child was in a hospital in Santa Monica, with this new technology I could make that journey in minutes.”

Los Angeles isn’t the only place that’s preparing for flying taxis. São Paulo, Osaka and Singapore are some of the sprawling, densely populated, global cities at various stages of planning for advanced air mobility. Closer to home, Europe’s first ‘vertiport’ – the name for eVTOL landing sites – is being built in France in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Vertiports have also been proposed for the UK, where a number of intercity eVTOL routes have already been planned.

Imagine travelling cross-country from Liverpool to Hull, or flying over water from South Wales to Cornwall, or Belfast to Glasgow. Even a seemingly pedestrian journey from Heathrow Airport to Cambridge takes two hours or more by car or train. You could do it in 20 minutes in an air taxi.

In order for those journeys to become a reality, however, much more planning and infrastructure is required. eVTOLs may plug into existing air traffic control structures and communication frequencies, but regulators will need to develop new licensing and credentials standards. There’s also the rather pressing question of where exactly air taxis will land and take off from.

Initially, they are likely to fly to and from existing airports and helipads, but they’ll very soon need their own spaces within our cities, explains Harper. “Once we talk about integrating those into the urban fabric of the neighbourhoods or communities, there’s a lot of things to think of,” he adds. “It’s going to take dedicated infrastructure, which includes recharging these vehicles, maintenance and servicing, and storing them overnight.”

In science fiction, flying cars often dock on skyscrapers, but that’s unlikely to be practical in the real world. Would you want to climb to the top floor of a tall building just to catch a taxi? Morrissey believes vertiports could instead be built on top of, or alongside, existing transport hubs so that passengers can connect from one mode to another. “We see this as integrating with the existing bus, rail and transit networks in places that are truly multimodal hubs,” he says.

Planning is vital. In the past, new transportation technologies have come along and surprised society. “The steam locomotive was created, and we had to build tracks and railroads. The bicycle and the internal combustion engine were invented, and we had to build roads,” says Morrissey. Even today’s electric scooters caught governments and city planners napping, with the vehicles hitting roads before rules were drawn up to govern their usage.

There is reason to believe that advanced aerial mobility will be different, however. There is a (metaphorical) runway between now and the vehicles’ launch, during which planners have time to work out how, where and why eVTOLs should fly. “I think, for the very first time in human history, we’re able to develop a transportation system to serve a new mode of transportation before that mode of transportation exists,” says Morrissey.

As well as flying taxis, eVTOLs could be used for search and rescue, transporting organs for transplant, as well as delivery and tourism. Estimates vary, but we could see hundreds or even thousands of them in the skies above the UK in the coming decades, with remotely piloted or even automated vehicles coming in time. However, many there are, experts now agree that it’s not a case of if, but when the technology will arrive.

“Safety certification is the tipping point,” says Macmillan. “Once you start seeing that happen, then you know it’s real because you’ll just see them flying through the air.”

Source: Science Focus