Frankfurt Airport Makes Air Taxi Integration Plans

Frankfurt Airport is partnering with Volocopter in building the ground infrastructure and operations for electric air taxi services.

Frankfurt Airport and Volocopter envision passengers using Volocopter air taxis to transition from other transportation hubs to the Frankfurt Airport, and vice Versa. The current focus is planning for smooth passenger handling on the ground and efficient integration into the existing transport infrastructure. The two companies will examine these cases with the potential integration of a Volocopter Port.

With Volocopter ports, Frankfurt Airport hopes to place themselves at the forefront of modern transport. Anke Giesen, COO at Frankfurt Airport, said: “We want to be the first airport in Europe to harness the potential of electric air taxis in partnership with pioneer Volocopter – for the benefit of our passengers and the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region. This partnership underscores Fraport AG’s role as a key driver of innovation in diverse fields.”

A Volocopter 2X prototype at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2017

Volocopter has already completed successful test flights in Dubai and has also signed on with Singapore for intra-city demonstration and test flights later this year. Said Florian Reuter, CEO Volocopter GmbH:

“Providing the ideal connection between the city center and the airport poses a huge challenge for the world’s major cities. Together with Fraport AG, we are excited to pioneer the implementation of an air taxi service at one of Europe’s most important airports. We will be tapping into Fraport’s wealth of experience to integrate the Volocopter Service safely and efficiently into the complex array of processes required at a major international airport.”

Volocopter has also recently been the subject of other infrastructure integration examinations, including one by a design firm in the UK. Volcopter’s original vision for its port featured a conveyer belt system which would allow for quick storage and battery cell switching:

Why it’s important: The Frankfurt International Airport is one of the many companies the world over beginning to integrate electric air taxi services into their building designs. Others include Paramount World Center in Miami, BLADE, the VRCO landing pad in the UK, the Taskers residential development in Australia, and more. These developments indicate that building UAM infrastructure will likely be nearly as great an industry as manufacturing the vehicles themselves.

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