Airports Eyed As Hubs For Urban Mobility Service

Although the eVTOL movement has focused on so-called urban mobility, one of the many contenders in the market is proposing using existing airports as hubs for its future service in Germany. Lilium, which hopes to launch service using five-seat passenger drones in 2025, has partnered with Dusseldorf and Cologne/Bonn Airports to investigate using them as bases for serving those parts of the country. The plan would be to eventually expand the infrastructure to the rest of the country.

Lilium COO Dr. Remo Gerber said by using the airports as hubs, the densely populated region around them can be efficiently served with their drones. “Cities such as Aachen, Bielefeld, Münster, and Siegen will be directly connected to the region’s largest international airports within 30 mins, providing emission-free, high-speed connectivity at an affordable price,” he said. Lilium’s design is a hybrid of VTOL and conventional aircraft and uses 36 motors housed in the lifting surfaces, which pivot for vertical operations.