Volocopter, short on partners, pauses Singapore air taxi plan: report

European urban air mobility (UAM) company Volocopter is experiencing unexpected turbulence in its efforts to roll out initial air taxi services around the world, with its launch project in Singapore reportedly having been put on hold just as its plans to debut aerial activity in Paris have met sharp political opposition.

According to Singapore daily The Straits Times, Volocopter decided to suspend its project to introduce air taxis to the city-state after failing to find sufficient local partners to support the venture. The German UAM startup had initially hoped to feature Singapore as one of its earliest global showcases of next generation aircraft travel.

Now, however, Volocopter says the difficulty of recruiting allies in Singapore to share the financing and labor of preparing required ground, air traffic, and other infrastructure has led it to halt its air taxi project there – for now.

“We will continue to look for local cost-sharing partners and Singapore remains our Asia-Pacific headquarters,” Volocopter told The Straits Times in confirming the decision. “Once the partners have been found, we will reconsider the launch timeline in Singapore.”

Despite that optimism, the development throws a considerable wrench into the Bruchsal-based startup’s UAM plans to use Singapore as the star of its initial air taxi services in Asia. 

Last year Volocopter said it intended to begin regular 15-minute air taxi flights around the Marina Bay area of the bustling city as early as 2024. To prepare for that, the company said it would open a permanent public exhibition to educate and acclimate people in Singapore with new UAM services. 

Its focus on the economic dynamo is understandable. 

For starters, Singapore has been welcoming and encouraging of new aerial tech like delivery drones and air taxis to modernize and speed travel around the city – a major, ultra-modern hub of international travel to boot. Indeed, the Singapore Roadmap that Volocopter released last year estimated new UAM services would contribute an additional $3.1 billion to the city-state’s economy by 2030 alone.

Volocopter told The Straits Times that it remains committed to the city, but for now is “revising our Singapore launch strategy and timeline.” But that may turn out to be an extended pause, for reasons beyond its control. 

The paper reported Volocopter’s decision is also based on diminishing company funds that must be reserved for its certification push and launches in markets with more actors involved in building and readying required infrastructure. 

“We are prioritizing cities that can accelerate (these) aspects, and adjusting our global business strategy and timeline accordingly” Volocopter told the daily.

First among those is Paris, where the company has been busy with French authorities, regulators, and sector partners in preparing launch of the world’s first air taxi flights during the 2024 Summer Olympics. But as DroneDJ reported last week, Volocopter and its UAM partners have met with sudden and broad-based opposition from the politicians governing Paris. 

Last week municipal counsellors voted to reject the plan to operate a series of aerial routes around the city – and from a barge-based vertiport in the Seine in central Paris – during the Games and through the end of 2024. Using bombastic language in doing so, detractors attacked the project as environmental, safety, cost, and practical nonsense tailored for an affluent elite looking to leapfrog traffic snarls.

But as bad as that development is – especially in PR terms on all sides – the Paris kerfuffle will probably be easier to resolve than the heavy financing concerns Volocoper apparently faces in Singapore, and may well ultimately be written off as one of those “France things.”

Indeed, one of the main motivators of the united front formed by disparate elected officials in Paris is their shared desire to complicate the affairs and sully the image of the unpopular national government. Throwing the air taxi scheme the government backs – and as its leaders prepare to bask in the economic and media glow that the Olympics will shine on the capital just seven months hence – is an effective way of doing that. 

But seven months is also sufficient time for opposition politicians to reap the short-term rewards of their politically opportunist assault on the planned introduction of air taxis during the Games, and still find a solution in time to permit UAM tech fulfill its planned role in showcasing the City of Light when it becomes the center of global attention next summer. 

The sudden, unexpected, and performance-minded political uproar will therefore likely be long forgotten as air taxis take to the Parisian skies next summer. It may, however, prove harder and take longer to find gung-ho partners willing to pony up the big bucks needed to enable services in Singapore, if Volocopter’s call still isn’t finding enough takers at this late date.