E-vtOL

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Urban Air Mobility (UAM) will provide future mobility for passengers and goods in cities and regions. It builds on the advancement of unmanned aircraft system technologies, electric vertical take-off and landing (e-VTOL) aircraft and digitalized air traffic management. The societal acceptance of UAM operations/services is an ever-increasing factor determining the success or failure of future ‘urban commercial aviation’ prospects. One aspect of concern relates to the role of non-aviation actors in the management of the very-low airspace that is considered by local authorities as an extension of the public space. Another aspect relates to the benefits of UAM operations/services as a complementary means of mobility to existing ground mobility systems. This has created an emerging multi-level governance issue whereby the responsibility for planning, development and ultimately management of very-low level airspace is not always clear. Action: The Assembly is invited to: a) explore strategies and measures for the potential modernisation of the airspace legal framework to address emerging multi-level governance issues in the context of future UAM services/operations and alignment needs across mobility sectors for future integrated mobility operations; b) assess impacts on existing ICAO annexes with regard to multi-level governance of the very low altitude airspace and develop an action plan accordingly; and c) consider a mechanism to bring together representatives of cities of the future, construction associations and aviation, including start-ups/scale up representatives, to align the specific roadmaps towards an integrated system of governance.