Skyports, the UK drone delivery and urban air mobility (UAM) infrastructure company, has acquired a helicopter terminal in the UK capital to repurpose for its own future electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) operations.
One of only two operational heliports in the city, Falcon Heliport is located in East London just minutes from the financial district in Canary Wharf. It will now operate as Skyports London Heliport and will continue to serve the existing helicopter market until the mid-2020s.
The deal is part of Skyports’ acquisition strategy of securing, developing and operating a network of vertiports to enable the transition to emissions-free aviation in the UK and further afield. In 2021, the company unveiled plans to develop a vertiport in Brent Cross in North London and is working on sites in the US, France, South Korea and Singapore.
Damian Kysely, head of Europe & Middle East at Skyports, said: “The acquisition demonstrates our ambition to deliver a network of operational landing sites for eVTOLs and our commitment to making the UK a leader in decarbonisation of domestic aviation. The heliport also provides us with an important live operating environment in which we can safely develop and test our vertiport systems, collect operational data and mature our vertiport technologies.”
