Hyundai Thinks Air Taxis are Possible as Early as 2028

Traffic in Metro Manila is already a nightmare, adding more roads just results in adding more cars–which does not help reduce traffic at all. One of the options being considered are air taxis, and Hyundai thinks that their take on the air taxi can be a reality by as early as 2028.

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Tech Crunch‘s Kirsten Korosec saw Hyundai’s air taxi in person at CES 2024. Called the S-A2, the air taxi is made under Hyundai’s advanced air mobility company Supernal. While it may look like your usual aircraft in person, what makes the S-A2 unique is that its propellers can move upwards for vertical takeoffs and landings. It has a rather large wingspan, so there will be challenge on how you will actually park this aircraft.

Supernal claims that the S-A2 is a refined version of the S-A1 air taxi concept they revealed three years ago. While we have yet to see an air taxi in operation (helicopters not counted), Supernal is confident that the S-A2 will be available to the public by 2028.

There are going to be challenges in mounting an air taxi business: aside from the challenges of parking them when picking up passengers of when you will store them when not in use, there are no clear regulations with how air taxis operate.

Do note that air taxis will face a complicated situation that they have to share the airspace with helicopters and other aircraft. Aircraft collisions are a bigger nightmare than land vehicle collisions–just look at what happened with the incident involving JAL’s Airbus A350 and the Japanese Coast Guard’s Bombardier Dash-8 aircraft.

Despite the challenges, Hyundai said that its Supernal advanced air mobility company has grown to 600 people and they are carefully studying how to make air taxis a feasible mode of transportation. One of the challenges cited is that the S-A2 needs to pass certification processes–one of them being the Federal Aviation Administration’s Type 1 certification process.

Supernal adds that they will begin tests of its air taxi in California this year, and will also submit its application to the FAA as well. Aside from those plans, Supernal also intends to submit to the FAA its compliance proposal to set the guidelines on operating air taxis.

In the Philippines, there are actually plans for air taxis as early as 2022 through German company Volocopter. The last we heard from them is that Volocopter was reportedly in talks with DTI and DICT on the feasibility of air taxis in the Philippines. There’s no update on this as of writing this article, so it remains to be seen if Volocopter is pushing through with its air taxi ambitions in the Philippines.