Flying taxis: London's vertiport future

Flying taxis have spent decades appearing in science-fiction films, but a new generation of electric aircraft could bring the concept much closer to reality. With plans for specialist “vertiports” in cities including London, passengers may eventually be able to fly above congested roads rather than sit in the traffic below.

Imagine arriving at Heathrow Airport, collecting your luggage and heading towards a small terminal nearby.

But instead of climbing into a car, taxi or train, you board a compact electric aircraft.

Minutes later, it rises vertically into the air.

There is no runway.

There is no long taxi towards a departure gate.

And, most importantly for anyone familiar with London traffic, there is no M4 or M25 congestion.

The aircraft flies towards a small landing facility in central London before descending vertically onto a rooftop-style platform.

It sounds futuristic.

Yet the technology required to make journeys like this possible is already being developed.

The aircraft attracting so much attention are generally known as eVTOLs — electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

They combine characteristics of helicopters, aeroplanes and electric vehicles.

Unlike conventional aircraft, they don't require a long runway.

Instead, multiple electric motors and propellers allow them to rise vertically from the ground before transitioning into forward flight.

Some designs resemble futuristic helicopters.

Others have fixed wings combined with multiple propellers.

The basic objective is the same: create an aircraft capable of transporting a small number of passengers relatively short distances without requiring a conventional airport runway.

That could make them particularly useful in large cities.

Few cities demonstrate the potential appeal of urban air travel better than London.

The capital has an enormous transport network, yet road congestion remains a significant problem.

A relatively short journey through central London can take considerably longer during peak periods.

Airport journeys can be even more unpredictable.

Heathrow lies west of London.

Gatwick is south of the capital.

Stansted is northeast.

Luton is to the north.

London City Airport sits in east London.

Moving between the city and these airports — or between the airports themselves — can involve some of Britain's busiest roads.

Flying taxis offer a radically different solution.

Instead of attempting to reduce congestion on the road, they simply fly above it.

Research into advanced air mobility has suggested that some urban journeys could potentially become dramatically faster.

Some estimates suggest journey times could be reduced by as much as 75% in certain circumstances.

The reason isn't necessarily that eVTOL aircraft would travel at extraordinary speeds.

The major advantage is routing.

A road vehicle has to follow roads.

It encounters junctions, traffic lights, roadworks and congestion.

An aircraft can potentially travel much closer to a direct line between its departure point and destination.

Consider an airport journey.

A passenger travelling by car may have to navigate miles of motorway and urban roads before reaching central London.

An electric aircraft could potentially travel much more directly.

This is one of the biggest challenges.

Building thousands of advanced aircraft is of limited value if there is nowhere convenient for them to take off and land.

The emerging solution is something called a vertiport.

Think of it as a small airport designed specifically for vertical take-off aircraft.

A vertiport could include landing and take-off areas, passenger facilities, charging infrastructure and connections with other transport services.

Because eVTOL aircraft don't require conventional runways, these facilities could occupy substantially less space than traditional airports.

Potential locations could include existing transport hubs, airports and specially developed urban sites.

The long-term vision is to integrate them with trains, buses and other transport networks rather than create an entirely separate system.

The UK has already demonstrated what this infrastructure could look like.

During the summer of 2022, a temporary facility called Air-One was constructed in Coventry.

Developed through a partnership involving Coventry City Council and British company Urban-Air Port, the project demonstrated a purpose-built hub for future electric aircraft.

The facility operated as a demonstration for several weeks.

Its significance went beyond Coventry.

It showed that the infrastructure needed for advanced air mobility doesn't necessarily have to resemble a conventional airport.

Small, modular facilities could potentially be installed much closer to where passengers actually want to travel.

Urban-Air Port has ambitious international plans.

The company has discussed developing hundreds of vertiport facilities around the world, with locations under consideration including London, Los Angeles, Australia, South Korea, France, Germany, Scandinavia and South East Asia.

Other infrastructure companies are also exploring the British market.

Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial announced plans for a network of more than 25 vertiports across the UK.

If projects like these eventually progress from concepts to operating transport networks, Britain's aviation infrastructure could look very different within the next decade.

Airport transfers are one of the most obvious potential applications.

Imagine a future Heathrow journey.

A passenger lands after an international flight.

After collecting their luggage, they transfer to a nearby vertiport.

An electric aircraft then carries them towards a London landing facility.

From there, the final part of the journey could be completed by train, Underground, taxi or private hire vehicle.

Such a service wouldn't necessarily replace conventional airport transfers.

Instead, it could create another transport tier for passengers willing to pay a premium to save time.

Business travellers could be an obvious early market.

For someone attending an important meeting immediately after landing, reducing a lengthy road journey to a much shorter flight could have considerable value.

Gatwick presents another potentially attractive use case.

The airport is around 30 miles south of central London.

It has excellent rail connections, but passengers travelling by road can encounter congestion depending on their destination and time of day.

An eVTOL connection could potentially provide a direct air link between Gatwick and strategically located vertiports around London.

The same concept could theoretically be applied to Stansted and Luton.

But distance matters.

Electric aircraft have limitations in battery capacity and range, so not every airport-to-city route will automatically be practical.

This could be one of the most interesting applications of all.

London's airports are geographically dispersed.

Passengers occasionally need to travel between them when making connecting journeys.

Heathrow to Gatwick is perhaps the best-known example.

But passengers may also need to travel between Heathrow and Luton, Gatwick and Stansted or other combinations.

Today these journeys are completed by road or public transport.

A future network of airport vertiports could theoretically allow passengers to transfer directly by air.

Instead of travelling around London on the M25, a small aircraft could fly a much more direct route.

The potential time saving could be substantial.

London already has helicopters.

So why is eVTOL technology considered different?

Cost, noise, emissions and infrastructure are among the important factors.

Helicopters are mechanically complex and expensive to operate.

Electric aircraft manufacturers hope that distributed electric propulsion — using multiple electric motors — can eventually make short urban flights quieter and more economical.

Battery-powered aircraft would also avoid direct exhaust emissions during flight.

Some future aircraft may use hydrogen or other low-carbon energy sources instead.

That does not automatically make urban aviation environmentally harmless.

Electricity still has to be generated, aircraft have to be manufactured and infrastructure must be built.

But developers hope eVTOL technology can offer a more sustainable alternative to conventional helicopter operations.

The image of a flying taxi often involves passengers climbing into an autonomous aircraft and selecting their destination on a screen.

Reality is likely to arrive more gradually.

European aviation regulators expect passenger-carrying air taxis initially to operate with pilots on board.

That is hardly surprising.

Commercial aviation operates under extremely strict safety requirements, and introducing an entirely new category of passenger aircraft will require extensive testing and regulation.

Automation may increase later.

Remote pilots could potentially supervise aircraft from the ground, while fully autonomous operations may eventually become possible.

But passenger confidence will be just as important as technical capability.

Many people may feel considerably more comfortable boarding their first flying taxi if there is a qualified pilot sitting at the controls.

No amount of futuristic design will matter if passengers don't trust the aircraft.

Safety is therefore arguably the biggest challenge facing advanced air mobility.

Aircraft must demonstrate reliability across countless operating conditions.

Regulators need procedures covering take-offs, landings, bad weather, emergency situations and interactions with conventional aircraft.

Urban airspace presents additional complications.

London already has extremely busy airspace serving Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City, as well as helicopter operations and general aviation.

Adding potentially hundreds of smaller aircraft would require sophisticated air-traffic-management systems.

There is another particularly British problem.

Weather.

Strong winds, heavy rain, fog and poor visibility can affect aviation operations.

A road vehicle may continue operating in weather that prevents a small aircraft from flying.

That means flying taxis are unlikely to eliminate the need for ground transport.

Even in a future containing extensive eVTOL networks, passengers will still require cars, trains, buses, taxis and private hire vehicles.

A premium airport passenger cannot simply miss a flight because the flying taxi is grounded by bad weather.

Ground transport will remain the essential fallback.

Aircraft weight matters considerably more than car weight.

Airport passengers don't travel empty-handed.

A family of four heading to Heathrow might have four large suitcases, several cabin bags and perhaps a pushchair.

That creates a very different payload requirement from transporting four commuters carrying laptops.

Early flying-taxi services may therefore work particularly well for business travellers and passengers with light luggage.

Conventional airport-transfer vehicles will continue to have a significant advantage when passengers need to transport substantial baggage.

That remains one of the biggest unanswered questions.

Early services are unlikely to compete with buses or the Underground on price.

New aircraft are expensive.

Infrastructure needs to be built.

Pilots and ground staff need to be employed.

Maintenance standards will be demanding.

Insurance and regulatory costs will also be significant.

For that reason, the first generation of commercial flying taxis is likely to appeal primarily to customers who place a particularly high value on time.

Over time, manufacturers hope increasing production and automation will reduce operating costs.

Whether prices eventually become accessible to ordinary commuters remains to be seen.

Airport travel provides an ideal example of how people value time differently.

A leisure passenger may be perfectly happy spending an hour travelling into London if the price is reasonable.

A business traveller arriving for a meeting worth millions of pounds may see the calculation differently.

If an air taxi saves 45 minutes, the premium fare might be easy to justify.

That is why airport-to-business-district routes could become among the earliest commercially attractive services.

London locations such as Canary Wharf would appear particularly suited to the concept because of the concentration of international businesses and proximity to existing transport infrastructure.

Passenger transport is only part of the potential market.

VTOL aircraft could also transport urgent goods.

Medical supplies could potentially travel rapidly between hospitals.

Aircraft could carry high-value components between industrial facilities.

Emergency services might use vertical-flight aircraft to reach incidents more quickly.

Some cargo aircraft could operate without pilots from an early stage because they do not have passengers on board.

That may allow freight applications to develop differently from passenger services.

It is tempting to imagine flying taxis replacing cars.

That probably isn't the most realistic way to view the technology.

London's transport system has evolved by adding layers.

Railways didn't eliminate roads.

The Underground didn't eliminate buses.

Cars didn't eliminate trains.

Private hire vehicles didn't eliminate black cabs.

Each mode of transport serves different journeys and different passengers.

Advanced air mobility could eventually become another layer.

A traveller might take an eVTOL from Heathrow to a London vertiport, then complete the final mile by private hire vehicle.

The aircraft handles the long, congested section.

The car provides door-to-door convenience.

Rather than competing directly, the two services could complement one another.

In February 2023, there are still many unanswered questions.

Aircraft certification must be completed.

Vertiports must be constructed.

Airspace needs to be managed.

Operating costs need to become commercially viable.

Passengers need to accept the technology.

And regulators need to be convinced it can operate safely above densely populated cities.

Those are substantial hurdles.

But the concept has moved well beyond science fiction.

Aircraft are being developed.

Regulators are preparing rules.

Infrastructure has already been demonstrated in Britain.

Companies are planning vertiport networks.

The question is gradually changing from: “Could flying taxis ever exist?” to: “When will passengers actually be able to use them?”

Imagine London ten or fifteen years from now.

You land at Heathrow.

Your phone confirms that your eVTOL is ready.

You walk to the airport's vertiport, board a small electric aircraft and rise above west London.

Instead of watching brake lights on the motorway, you look down at them.

Minutes later, the aircraft lands at another vertiport closer to your destination.

A private hire vehicle is waiting outside to complete the final part of the journey.

That future is not guaranteed.

Technology, economics, infrastructure and regulation will ultimately determine whether flying taxis become an everyday form of transport or remain a premium niche.

But one thing is increasingly clear.

The airport transfer industry of the future may not exist entirely on the ground.

For now, passengers travelling between London and its airports still rely primarily on road and rail transport.

Airports Transfer provides pre-booked private hire journeys to and from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend airports, as well as transfers between airports.

Road transport retains several important advantages that future flying taxis will have to overcome.

Passengers can travel directly from their front door to the airport terminal, groups can remain together and vehicles can accommodate substantially more luggage than small electric aircraft are likely to carry.

Private hire vehicles can also operate in weather conditions that may prevent small aircraft from flying.

In the future, however, ground transfers and electric aviation may work together.

A passenger could potentially travel by flying taxi for the longest section of a journey before transferring to a pre-booked vehicle for the final few miles.

Whether that happens in five years, ten years or considerably longer remains uncertain.

For the moment, the M25 isn't disappearing.

But one day, airport passengers might have the option of simply flying over it.

Written by Airports Transfer for passengers travelling to and from London airports.