Ferrovial is advancing further in its quest to become a leading player in the fast-growing air taxi business. The company run by Rafael del Pino and Ignacio Madridejos recently formed an alliance with British company Milligan to promote this activity in the UK with the development of the country’s first vertiport. The Spanish-origin and now Netherlands-based group has preliminary roadmaps for entering the region in the United States, United Kingdom and Spain.

Ferrovial and Milligan have worked together to identify and develop locations for urban mobility operations in the UK. Both companies will cooperate with the giant American engineering Aecom and British Lichfieldsacting as planning adviser.

Multinationals have forged other alliances in this area with Eve, Lilium, or Vertical

With this alliance, Ferrovial, which operates through its Airports division, can take a new step in its plans to design, build and operate a vertiport in the UK. Through this collaboration, partners will identify locations with high demand, will select potential sites and carry out evaluation criteria to determine the feasibility of each site for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft operations. This agreement aims to increase the connectivity of cities across the UK.

Ferrovial announced in 2021 its intention to deploy the network more than 25 vertiports in the UK. Previously, he also revealed his plan to develop a network of more than 10 vertiports in Florida (United States). To develop the design and engineering components of the vertiport, Ferrovial partnered two years ago with international architectural studio Grimshaw and with international engineering, management and development consultancy Mott MacDonald.

The Dutch multinational company has signed an agreement in 2021 with British Vertical Aerospace to increase vertiport activities and in April an alliance with Air Mobility of Eve, a developer of urban air traffic management software controlled by Embraer and owned by Acciona (with 1.14% of Eve Holding capital), to jointly manage the operation of vertiports and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Ferrovial also has a strategic agreement with US aircraft manufacturer Lilium, which also has a minority stake in its capital.