Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Yuji Akasaka, president of Japan Airlines (JAL), regards the spread of eVTOL (flying car) services around the nation as an urgent task.
In an interview with national broadcaster NHK, Akasaka explained, “If you go to a rural area, there are many places that are difficult to reach by land, such as mountainous areas, remote islands, and detours.” He believes that eVTOL transportation has the potential to quickly expand throughout regions such as Hokkaido in the north and on remote islands near Kyushu and Okinawa in the south.
He adds that these services will likely encompass not only tourism and business use cases, but also employment for emergency relief during disasters.
In Akasaka’s view, Japan needs to move quickly to develop and utilize eVTOLs.
“Flying cars are no longer vehicles of the future,” he asserts.
But he also adds that “the most important thing is how to get society to accept them. The biggest factor in achieving that is to properly prove their safety. We have a lot of safety know-how which we have built up over many years.”
JAL has partnered for some time with Germany’s Volocopter within the Japanese market, and more recently it reached an agreement with Wisk Aero, presumably with an eye towards providing longer-distance eVTOL flights in Japan.
Recent eVTOL Industry Related Articles
Flying Car Hits Speed Bump in Nobeoka
SkyDrive Flying Car Gains Weight
Nidec to Build Flying Car Engines
SLT Aims to Produce Six-Seater Flying Car
Island Hopping Flying Car Over Okinawa Prefecture
West Japan Showroom for Chinese Flying Car
SkyTaxi Moves to Acquire Korean Flying Cars
JAL Bringing Wisk Flying Cars to Japan