A roadmap towards new ATM services for AAM

Eve Air Mobility’s Dr Rob Weaver explains the next steps

The aviation industry is on the cusp of launching a new mode of transport to address the urban commuter challenge. Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOLs) are a new way to travel across the city, which will save the travelling public time with zero local emissions.

Passenger-carrying eVTOLs will initially be piloted using visual flight rules (VFR), but instrument flight rules (IFR) operations are expected soon after and uncrewed aircraft are actively being developed by the industry.

Key to the new Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vision is an increase in scale beyond current helicopter-based mobility. Operations and manufacturing are being planned at a scale much greater than helicopter operations.

eVTOL development is progressing rapidly, which is an important challenge to which the air traffic management (ATM) industry must respond. While an individual typecertified eVTOL aircraft will be able to fly under current air traffic control (ATC) arrangements, an evolution in urban ATM arrangements is needed to enable efficient, reliable and scalable UAM services for the travelling public.

More broadly, the introduction and scaling of UAM in the urban environment will likely be a catalyst for change for all low-level airspace users, including traditional airspace users and drones.

UAM will lead to growth in urban aircraft operations’ operational tempo, density and complexity. There will be more flights with shorter turnaround times and less time for reaction. At the same time, we expect to see an increase in the need for drones to use the same airspace at times.

Within a particular urban environment, multiple eVTOL fleet operators and vertiport operators will collaborate to deliver passenger services. As part of delivering a dependable and cost-effective operation, it will be important to manage the unique performance capabilities of eVTOLs. The duration of holding and hovering needs to be limited to preserve energy and reduce delay.

The urban airspace will need to be carefully managed to support the integrated operation of UAM aircraft and other airspace users in low-level airspace, enabling the optimised performance and safety of operations.

Consideration is needed across all ICAO Key Performance Areas: Safety, Security, Environment, Cost Effectiveness, Capacity, Flight Efficiency, Flexibility, Predictability, Access & Equity, Participation & Collaboration and Global Interoperability.

It is important to lay out a roadmap for how ATM services need to be improved in the short, medium and long-term to enable the industry’s success. eVTOL Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), fleet operators, ATM service providers and ATM technology developers need a clear plan for how the services and technology will evolve to support UAM and other airspace users.

Like all aviation operations, UAM services will encounter delay and disruption from day one. This factor, combined with the need to minimise holding for electric aircraft, means that frameworks for flight planning and air traffic coordination across industry stakeholders will be needed from very early UAM services. Without them, operations will be unreliable and expensive, which may stall the launch of the industry.

After the industry has launched, more complex ATM frameworks and integrated services will be needed to enable scale. In some urban environments, the demand for scale may come relatively quickly, so this mediumterm challenge may exist before the end of the decade.

In the next decade, the UAM industry wants to introduce uncrewed passenger-carrying eVTOLs into the urban environment.

These aircraft will need to integrate with existing airspace users and piloted eVTOLs operating both VFR and IFR. Advanced traffic management services will be essential for this complex integration.

Eve Air Mobility (Eve) is dedicated to accelerating the UAM ecosystem. Benefitting from a start-up mindset, backed by Embraer’s 55-year history of aerospace expertise, and with a singular focus, the company is taking a holistic approach to progressing the UAM ecosystem, with an advanced eVTOL project, comprehensive aftermarket services and a unique air traffic management solution, Vector.

Eve is actively developing essential digital systems to enable urban air mobility to scale in volume. In October 2024, building on helicopter trials in the UK in 2023, Eve worked with Revo, an Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) platform in Brazil, to conduct an urban air traffic simulation in São Paulo, Latin America’s most populous city with 11.5 million inhabitants, where travellers spend an average of 2 hours and 47 minutes in traffic every day.

The simulation, which utilised Revo’s helicopters and Vector, took place at Revo’s operations control centre in São Paulo. In shadowing Revo’s helicopter operations, Vector simulated the management and tracking of eVTOL operations in an urban environment, applying the services necessary to respond to various scenarios, including delay on departure and to destination, airspace/weather constraints and in-flight deviation to alternate landing locations. The simulation focused on validating new traffic management services necessary for eVTOLs to conduct safe and reliable operations at entry into services and in high utilisation use cases at scale.

At Eve, we are changing the way the world commutes. We want to create new and more enjoyable ways of getting from point A to point B, replacing traffic stress with a seamless journey for everyone. For Eve, this includes addressing the crucial ATM challenges to ensure the success of UAM.

Rob Weaver

Rob Weaver is the Urban ATM Global Business Development Lead for Eve Air Mobility, the Embraer-backed startup dedicated to accelerating the global UAM ecosystem.