A consortium of companies and organizations are joining forces to launch Ireland’s first passenger and cargo vertiport at Shannon Airport by 2022. The parties involved include UK-based ground infrastructure and drone operations specialist Skyports; Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI), a not-for-profit organization tasked with creating a future mobility infrastructure that leverages new technologies in the Limerick-Shannon area on Ireland's west coast; UAV system operator and training certification provider Avtrain; and the Shannon Group, a public/private partnership focused on the development of aviation, property, and tourism in the region.

With goals of establishing Ireland’s first eVTOL air taxi service as well as routine beyond visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone operations, the group, which expects to establish an operational vertiport in 2022 at the FMCI campus adjacent to the airport, plans to start beyond visual line of sight flight testing there as early as September. Those tests, it says, will demonstrate the viability of UAVs and illustrate the benefits that AAM development can bring to both urban and rural areas of the country.

“Ireland and this region, in particular, has a huge potential to shape future research and development of [AAM],” said Russell Vickers, FMCI’s CEO. “Development of a vertiport in conjunction with a UAV testing area provides a natural extension to the capabilities of the Future Mobility Campus.”

Skyports is involved in multiple other projects aimed at establishing vertiports to support eVTOL air taxi operations. These involve partnerships in Singapore, Japan, Paris, and London.