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According to the announcement, the joint venture will be the sole operator of the first routes in the planned city. It's not just about air taxi services, but also “vertical logistics services - the VoloDrone cargo drone only completed its first public test flight in the Port of Hamburg in October . Specifically, Neom has commissioned five VoloDrones and ten VoloCitys.
The routes should not only connect destinations in Neom City, but also Neom with the industrial city of Oxagon. The traffic concept of “The Line†- a 170-kilometer-long strip city - stipulates that only pedestrians and cyclists should be on the road above ground. The rest of the traffic - with a subway and autonomous vehicles - takes place underground. Or in the air.
The air taxi routes are also to be "fully integrated into Neom's multimodal and emission-free transport system". The joint venture is also to build an open platform for vertical mobility services, into which further services for logistics, but also emergency operations and tourist flights, are to be integrated.
"When designing cities and urban infrastructures in the 21st century, the focus is on mobility," says Nadhmi Al-Nasr, CEO of Neom. “Through the joint venture with Volocopter, we are showing the world that Neom is the ideal region for the rapid implementation of UAM (Urban Air Mobility, editor's note) and for the creation of an integrated vertical mobility system. Neom's mission is to establish a global real laboratory for future mobility. "
Volocopter CCO Christian Bauer adds that Neom is a unique opportunity to “help shape a completely new UAM ecosystem from the start without restricting existing infrastructure or existing regulationsâ€. Additional road construction should also be avoided and the “unique nature†preserved.
At the end of November it was announced that Volocopter had canceled its planned SPAC IPO in the USA. The reason given - also with reference to the SPAC IPO of Lilium in September - was that the market environment was unfavorable.