Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japan Airlines (JAL) opened an air mobility website on Friday highlighting its plans for both drone delivery as well as air taxi services.
JAL plans to launch its commercial drone delivery service in 2023, which will allow products bought online to be delivered soon after they are ordered, perhaps as little as an hour in many cases.
The launch of air taxi services are targeted for 2025. Last year, JAL formed a partnership with Germany’s Volocopter, a leading drone and eVTOL (flying car) company, with the objective of establishing package delivery and air taxi services in Japan.
In a promotional video, JAL imagines a passenger arriving at Narita Airport taking a Volocopter aircraft to a vertiport in central Tokyo.
Last October, JAL and three partners formed an agreement with Setouchi town, Kagoshima Prefecture, to conduct practical drone and eVTOL tests between the Amami Islands, expected to commence next year.
JAL and its partners–namely Japan Air Commuter, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, and MS & AD InterRisk Research Institute–will use these practical tests to identify various problems and issues that may attend the provision of commercial drone delivery and air taxi services in Japan.
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