Embraer company Eve UAM has formed a consortium of leading urban air mobility organisations and technology enablers, including Skyports, L3Harris Technologies and the Community Air Mobility Initiative (CAMI), to develop a concept of operations (CONOPS) for UAM operations between Miami International airport and the Miami Beach Convention Center. This is intended to be a first step in bringing UAM operations to Miami-Dade County.

“Miami-Dade County and Florida present a great opportunity for Eve to create a blueprint that can be replicated in markets in North America and other regions as we look toward the introduction of UAM operations," says Eve CEO Andre Stein. "Eve and the consortium have gained valuable insights into how best we and our peers can prepare the ecosystem to launch and scale safely. We are excited to continue working with all stakeholders in Miami-Dade County and the community on the next phases of this concept of operations.”

The consortium examined the ecosystem required for both passenger and vehicle journeys, received valuable insights and feedback from stakeholders across Miami-Dade County and accessed locally, publicly available information. The data was used to establish a foundational understanding of how UAM could safely support an airport shuttle use case in the county.

Each of the consortium partners has been playing an essential role within this collaboration. Skyports designs, builds and operates take off and landing infrastructures for UAM aircraft; L3Harris integrates next-generation air traffic management (ATM) technologies to enable UAM operations; and CAMI supports the responsible integration of UAM into communities.

“Skyports is proud to partner with this consortium and community leaders to contribute our infrastructure knowledge to the future of urban air mobility in Miami-Dade," adds Skyports CEO Duncan Walker. "We believe this study is an important first step to working with the community as well as local industry to ensure vertiports can be delivered with strong local support. As Miami-Dade County begins preparation for urban air mobility operations in the coming years we look forward to working with local and state leaders to make this a reality.”

The consortium is now seeking community input on the first phase of this CONOPS and will hold various 'listen and learn' sessions with community stakeholders, its peers and potential operators to examine how additional procedures and frameworks can be developed over coming months and years. This feedback will allow the consortium to better understand Miami-Dade's unique operating environment, establish a more detailed flight profile, address community concerns and determine how charging infrastructure for eVTOL aircraft can be safely built into a future UAM ecosystem.

The listen-and-learn period is expected to last until 30 June, 2022, at which point the team will incorporate the community's input and present the findings to the county and public stakeholders later this summer.

Miami-based Part 121 Global Crossing Airlines Group has signed a letter of intent for up to 200 of Eve’s eVTOLs, bringing the OEMs current order backlog to 1,785 eVTOLs. Deliveries should start in 2026.

Global will also contribute to Eve’s CONOPS in terms of infrastructure formulation and deployment of aircraft through the network.

“We are honoured to be working with Eve Air Mobility and believe its affiliation with Embraer ensures it will be the best positioned eVTOL OEM,” says chair and CEO Ed Wegel. “These eVTOLs will enable us to expand our market throughout south Florida, bringing our customers to their flights at Miami International and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International airports, as well as local flying within Key West and all of the Keys, Naples and Palm Beach.”

“We are delighted with this partnership with GlobalX, which will maximise our efforts to structure UAM operations. Its experience as an airline will contribute to the expansion of Eve's eVTOL deployment in North America. The partnership also ensures both companies' commitment to delivering sustainable UAM and providing the community with better and faster solutions,” adds Stein.