Air taxi start-up Vertical Aerospace delays service launch by a year

Vertical Aerospace, the Bristol-based flying taxi start-up, has pushed back its entry into service by a year to 2026, in the latest sign that the revolution in “urban air mobility” is taking longer than expected to take flight.

Vertical, which is listed on Nasdaq, told investors earlier this month that it was now targeting certification of its vehicle by Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) “by the end of 2026”. It is the second time that the company has delayed certification since April 2022, when it changed from 2024 to 2025.

“Attempting to predict a date with certainty when it is several years away is challenging and achieving it depends on agreeing compliance methods for new technology with the authorities,” the company’s founder and chief executive, Stephen Fitzpatrick, said in a letter to shareholders. 

Fitzpatrick cited factors outside of the company’s control such as the upcoming compliance testing of its technology with the CAA among the reasons for the decision. 

“We believe the industry as a whole will experience some timeline corrections and we are already seeing signs of peers acknowledging this,” he said in the letter.

Certification dates for other electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) start-ups have similarly slipped; Germany’s Lilium last year extended its date from 2024 to 2025. The company told investors in a letter this week that it was looking to raise $250mn to help fund the development of its air taxi vehicle. 

Fitzpatrick, who is best known in the UK for founding energy supplier Ovo Energy, told the Financial Times: “All air authorities are motivated but it’s clear there is a lot of work for them to do, including building up the capabilities of skills internally to certify these vehicles.”

For anyone active in the aerospace industry, there was a “big hurdle to get over”, he added. “Not to prove that the technology works but to prove that it never fails.” 

The “regulatory landscape is still being defined”, said Rami Abdel Aziz, manager at aviation consultancy IBA. “It will take time to establish comprehensive guidance for eVTOLS”.

Despite the regulatory uncertainty, some companies, including Volocopter of Germany, are still aiming for certification as early as next year. Volocopter plans to have a service in operation in time for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.

The readjustment of milestones underlines the challenges that still need to be addressed before the promise of urban air mobility can become a reality. The sector has attracted billions of dollars as investors have bought into the dream of fast and affordable transport in the skies, despite the absence of any certified vehicles.

Shares in air taxi start-ups that went public as special purpose vehicles in 2021 have all fallen back as some of the initial investor enthusiasm has evaporated amid global economic uncertainties.

Shares in Vertical have dropped 80 per cent since the company’s listing on Nasdaq in December, valuing the company at $386mn. 

Industry supporters, however, insist that sentiment around the industry has shifted from asking whether electric aviation will ever happen to focus on the technological progress being achieved. 

Vertical has partnered with companies including Rolls-Royce, Leonardo and Honeywell, to build its VX4 vehicle, which will have a range of up to 100 miles, a cruise speed of 150mph and capacity for four passengers.

Vertical has been flying full-scale prototypes since 2018. It completed its first piloted test flight last year and plans a piloted, high-speed flight over the summer. 

In March, the CAA gave Vertical a so-called “design organisation approval”, a key step required for type certification, the first for the regulator to grant such an approval to an eVTOL manufacturer.

The company is funded through much of 2024, but expects to raise additional capital this year. It had £104mn in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the first quarter, it said in the letter.