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Urban Air Mobility Is Coming

What to expect in 2030, 2040, and 2050

We know (Trust us, please, we know!), urban air mobility (UAM) is coming. But what’s coming, and when, and where?

A lot of numbers are published, but they’re always somewhat scattershot, a projection here, a guesstimate there. So, we thought putting them all in one place – this place – might make it easier to understand the scope, the timelines, and the impact UAM will have.

Here are some of the more prominent digits we’ve found:

50% – The average travel time people will save using urban air mobility compared to (currently) conventional, regional, and intracity ground-based transportation.

438,000 – The number of UAM vehicles expected to be operational by 2040.

70 – The number of large cities where UAM will “fully emerge” by 2050.

12,000,000 – The number of global UAM passenger enplanements by the 2030s.

400,000,000 – The number of global UAM passenger enplanements by 2050 (4% of total enplanements).

US$15.54 billion – The projected value of the UAM market by 2030.

US$86.3 billion – The projected value of the UAM market by 2035

405+ – The number of enterprises developing UAM vehicles as of January 2021*

400Wh/kg – The battery energy density thought to be the critical enabling value for UAM electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles to be commercially viable.

* Per/courtesy of the Vertical Flight Society

Dave Clarke

Dave Clarke is a California-based writer who is fascinated by the way technology changes our lives.