Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japan Airlines (JAL) has made another strategic move in the eVTOL (flying car) industry by tying up with Avolon, a Dublin-based global aircraft leasing company.
The alliance aims to identify potential local partners and customers, as well as to examine infrastructure requirements, for the purpose of introducing one of the world’s first eVTOL ride sharing businesses in Japan by 2025, in time for the 2025 World Expo in Osaka.
Tomohiro Nishihata, managing executive officer of JAL, commented that this alliance “represents an important step towards the social implementation of air taxi at Osaka Kansai Expo in 2025. Our partnership with Avolon, lays out the pathway towards achieving air mobility revolution in Japan.”
Domhnal Slattery, CEO of Avolon, added, “We continue to identify partners who share the same vision to revolutionize air travel through zero-emissions eVTOL aircraft and shape the future of travel. This latest long-term partnership with JAL aligns us with one of Japan’s leading airlines on their journey to sustainability and to decarbonizing air transport.”
Additionally, through this partnership JAL will have a right to purchase or lease up to fifty Vertical Aerospace VX4 eVTOL aircraft from Avolon, with the option to purchase or lease up to fifty additional units.
Nishihata explains, “The introduction of VX4 will also contribute to reduce our environmental impact and we fundamentally believe that sustainability will be the engine for future growth across our business and region. We look forward to collaborating closely with Avolon and Vertical on the roadmap to certification for the VX4 with the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau.”
UK-based Vertical Aerospace is the same eVTOL maker that the Marubeni Corporation teamed with less than a month ago with a very similar objective. In Marubeni’s case, it made a conditional pre-order of up to two hundred VX4, the same aircraft connected with the new JAL-Avolon deal.
Until this latest announcement, JAL was understood to be working mainly with Germany’s Volocopter on developing eVTOL services for Japan. In February 2020, the Japan Airlines Innovation Fund invested in Volocopter, and last September a “cooperation agreement to promote the development of the urban air mobility industry” was unveiled.
It has not been clarified what, if anything, JAL’s new partnership with Avolon and Vertical Aerospace portends for its existing links with Volocopter.
It is clear, however, that Volocopter keenly retains its Japan ambitions, having just joined the Osaka Roundtable on a Moving Revolution Society in the Sky.
Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter commented, “We are honored to be seated at the Osaka Roundtable and take flight at an important milestone of the Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai. Japan’s and Osaka’s commitment to urban air mobility commercialization and its open approach allows us to be involved in pioneering them into the future of mobility.”
The same announcement from Volocopter notes that JAL recently reserved both its VoloCity eVTOL and the VoloDrone for future use.
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