Air taxis can get fans to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, if regulators don’t get in the way

Southern Californians’ dreams of jumping in a flying car to bypass the region’s massive traffic delays may be getting closer. Two California-based companies are among those racing to bring flying cars to Southern California in time for the Olympics.

These electric vertical takeoff-and-landing aircraft, known as eVTOLs, are small electric air taxis that take off and land like helicopters but fly more like airplanes. They hope to serve local and regional travel markets currently dominated by automobiles.

California is home to two leading developers: Archer Aviation in San Jose and Joby Aviation in Santa Cruz. The industry and government officials hope to debut these new aircraft and commercial services at the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where Archer was selected as the official air taxi provider.

Most electric vertical takeoff-and-landing aircraft prototypes are designed to carry four or five passengers over distances of less than 200 miles. Some can fly horizontally, like airplanes, using tilting or dedicated propellers, but all take off and land vertically, like helicopters.

One key hurdle is that the aircraft will require specialized infrastructure, particularly the vertiports where they will take off, land, and charge. Unlike aircraft design and operating approval, which is under the e jurisdiction of the Federal Aviation Administration, state and local governments will play the dominant role in vertiport policy. Getting those policies right will be critical to widespread adoption and commercial success.

While the technology is promising, no company has shown how their eVTOLs can be commercially viable, and several eVTOL developers have called it quits in the past two years. Given this uncertainty, Southern California policymakers should take care to avoid exposing taxpayers to the risk of vertiport investments.

Decades of experience with helicopters and heliports suggest that the vast majority of vertiports will be privately owned and operated, posing little risk to taxpayers. But larger public-use vertiports to serve multiple eVTOL operators will be desirable, especially in urban areas.

Allowing vertiport developers to leverage vacant or underused public property could be a win-win for both Southern California governments and the eVTOL industry.

Take publicly owned urban parking facilities, for example. Many central business districts have seen reduced office occupancy since the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in lower parking revenue. These underutilized multi-story parking garages offer what vertiport developers need—obstacle clearance and strong ground-transportation connections—making their top decks particularly attractive.

Southern California cities and counties could lease all or part of their parking structures to vertiport developers, which would finance and build the infrastructure required to support eVTOL operations. This would revitalize underperforming assets, and vertiports could expand in desirable locations at lower cost.

The concession model, which has successfully transferred risk from taxpayers to private investors in a variety of procurement contexts, could prove equally valuable for public-use vertiport development.

California’s legislators have, to date, wisely rejected overly regulating vertiports. The only attempt thus far came from Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, who represents southeastern Los Angeles County. She introduced Assembly Bill 2554 in 2024 that would have prohibited vertiport concession contracts, but the bill died after a committee hearing was canceled at Calderon’s request.

To be sure, there are positive things California lawmakers could do on vertiport policy. Assembly Bill 431, introduced last year, would have defined key terms in statute, incorporated vertiports into state aviation system planning, provided technical assistance to localities, and established statewide policy on vertiport development without precluding concession contracts.

Focusing on these basics would set electric vertical takeoff-and-landing aircraft up for success, and flying taxis could debut at the 2028 Olympics. If they pursue too much regulation, it could lead to another long delay in realizing flying cars.

A version of this column first appeared at The Orange County Register.

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Source: https://reason.org/commentary/air-taxis-can-get-fans-to-the-2028-la-olympics-if-regulators-dont-get-in-the-way/