Press release: New association to support sustainable Urban Air Mobility in Switzerland

Three Master students from HES-SO founded Urban Air Mobility Association Switzerland (UAMAS) to bring together the various actors involved in a new form of sustainable and efficient public transport: air taxi services with electric aircrafts. With this project they want to pro-mote this new form of public transportation of the third dimension. Such Air taxis will be soon able to carry between two to five people over short and medium distances.

Even with the great public transportation system in Switzerland, the efficiency is limited due to the particular topography with lakes and mountains. According to the Federal Statistical Office, people older than five years old, spend an average of more than 90 minutes travelling per day. By making this observation, we can easily see the benefits of air taxis: direct routes. For example, by taking the train from Geneva airport to Gstaad, it takes 2.5 hours to get there. However, this travel time could be reduced to less than 45 minutes by air.

Thanks to many technological advances in aviation in recent years, this time saving is no longer a utopian dream: from now on, vertical take-off and landing aircraft with electric propulsion (eVTOL), new generation batteries and intelligent autopilot systems, help to solve traffic problems in areas with high population density and increases efficiency.

Recent studies, conducted by management consultants, all show that Urban Air Mobility will become more democratic. The only question is: when? The initiators of the UAMAS project want to accelerate the transition of public transportation to the air. In order to achieve this goal, they do their utmost to connect all stakeholders by organizing events and meetings.

Safety, privacy, employment, the environment, noise and visual disruption are topics with many open questions to which answers must be provided in order to gain acceptance by the general public. UAMAS wants to provide in-depth knowledge and transparent communication to promote this new means of transport.

First members like Dufour Aerospace, a Swiss start-up working on an eVTOL, will discuss the opportunities and challenges of Urban Air Mobility at workshops with other stakeholders.

Press release (PDF, English)
Press release (PDF, German)
Press release (PDF, French)

UAMAS member Dufour Aerospace’s visualisation of their aEro 3