Archer Aviation has identified the Corniche, Saadiyat Island and some areas of Abu Dhabi city as among the most promising places in which to run its electric air taxi service, as it gears up for a commercial launch before the year's end.
Nikhil Goel, chief commercial officer at Archer Aviation, told The National that a network would be revealed in "the near future”.
The company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange as ACHR, is working with Abu Dhabi authorities to make the city the first where the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft service, called Midnight, is publicly available.
“Let’s say you live in the Corniche, or you live in Saadiyat, you want to be able to get to the airport at rush hour, that can take quite a while,” he said.
“The vision is you'd be able to fly to the airport, land and then seamlessly transfer to your Etihad flight. So, the Corniche, Saadiyat and all the western parts of Abu Dhabi are really promising locations, where currently the route by car will be pretty cumbersome.”
The western parts of Abu Dhabi are thought to include high-traffic areas such as Al Bateen, Al Khalidiya and Al Maqtaa, where road congestion at peak hours is routine. Al Hudayriyat Island, along with fast-growing suburbs such as Mohamed bin Zayed City and Mussaffah, also lie on the western side of Abu Dhabi city, or just beyond.
These areas are experiencing rapid residential and commercial growth, but are also saddled with traffic congestion during peak times.
“The way that we'll start is we're going to have a small launch network. Those will be hot spots in Abu Dhabi,” said Mr Goel. “Our data scientists have identified two things – one is high level of demand but then two is areas where the traffic is immensely high.
“There are so many routes within Abu Dhabi, which is quite big. It covers 84 per cent of the Emirates. We've started to identify what some of those routes are and then we will launch on those couple of routes.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Office is working with the company to make the capital its first international launch site, with plans to establish its first international headquarters and manufacturing plant in the city.
Mr Goel said that Archer would start commercial operations with “less than five” air taxis, each with a capacity of four passengers, plus the pilot, which can fly a distance exceeding 161km at a maximum speed of 241kph.
“We want to make sure that everything is working properly, everybody has a good customer experience and from there, we'll scale as much as the demand can accommodate,” he said.
Archer Aviation will be carrying out rigorous testing to ensure the vehicles are safe and reliable for service before commercial operations begin. Mr Goel said it is bringing the first Midnight eVTOL to Abu Dhabi this summer, which will then undergo test flights.
The company has teamed up with Falcon Aviation to develop a vertiport network in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where the flying taxis will take off and land.
“There are so many assets here in Abu Dhabi that go completely underused,” said Mr Goel. "There are nearly 100 helipads in Abu Dhabi alone and we use very, very few of them because helicopters are quite noisy.
“Using them in any real volume would be quite disruptive. We are working with all of the big landowners and the regulators to understand how you convert those facilities into vertiports, so that we can then go commercially.”
A specific price for a ride in the air taxi has yet to be revealed, but the cost within Abu Dhabi is expected to be Dh300 to Dh350 ($81 to $950 and between the emirates Dh800 to Dh1,500. “That’s going to be very much based on the market,” said Mr Goel. "What I can tell you is the cost itself will be similar to that of a taxi, or a Careem, or an Uber.
“This is not meant to be a premium, rich person's product. This is very much meant to be an accessible product that anyone can take.”
Archer Aviation has its headquarters in the US state of California and manufactures its eVTOLs in Atlanta, Georgia, a plant that is being scaled up to develop 2,000 of the vehicles a year.
The company is also looking to start commercial operations in India.
Joby Aviation, another company developing air taxis, is planning its service in Dubai. It is seeking approval from the US Federal Aviation Authority and the General Civil Aviation Authority in the UAE to begin commercial operations.