GE Digital is supporting Varon Vehicles Corporation in its plans to develop urban air mobility (UAM) services in Latin America. Under a memorandum of understanding signed this week, the GE division will contribute its expertise in software analytics to support Varon’s work on airspace efficiency, safety, and predictive maintenance for eVTOL aircraft.

Varon Vehicles aims to develop UAM infrastructure and services in countries such as Colombia, where it is based. The privately owned company sees potential in congested cities across the region for air taxi networks, as well as the use of eVTOL aircraft for applications such as cargo deliveries and tourism.

“With plans for the introduction of UAM operations in major cities, digital tools and systems will be needed to connect and monitor eVTOL aircraft in confined and controlled airspace,” said Varon Vehicles founder and CEO Felipe Varon.

GE Digital is engaged in a wide array of industrial software applications in the aviation sector, as well as in fields such as power generation, oil and gas, and manufacturing. Sister company GE Aviation is developing propulsion systems to support new VTOL aircraft such as XTI’s TriFan 600.

GE also provides avionics and had intended to be directly involved in developing an air mobility support ecosystem through a new subsidiary called Airxos, which it launched in April 2019. However, the new unit was shut down last year.