FutureFlight
In 2024 Advanced Air Mobility Pioneers Embark on Another Pivotal Year
Experts from Honeywell , SMG Consulting and Alton Aviation share their expectations and concerns for an industry sector that now needs to be fuelled by more than hype.
Overair's first Butterfly eVTOL prototype
Overair is preparing to start flight testing the first full-scale prototype of its Butterfly eVTOL aircraft. (Image: Overair)

In a little more than 12 months, investors in eVTOL aircraft developers have been led to believe they can start expecting commercial returns to start flowing. However, there are still plenty of question marks over the pace and form that the much-vaunted advanced air mobility (AAM) revolution will take. What is clear is that natural selection is taking its course, meaning that just a handful of frontrunners are now vying to be in the first wave to operate the new aircraft.

At the same time, others are not as fixated on being first to market in 2025 and don’t view 2024 with the same criticality that it has for the likes of Archer, Joby, Volocopter, Lilium, Beta Technologies, and Vertical Aerospace. Airbus, Wisk (owned by Boeing), Jaunt, Eve Air Mobility (majority shareholder: Embraer), Supernal, Overair, and Odys Aviation are among the pioneers willing to take more time to come to market on their own terms, believing that changing air transportation fundamentally is a long-distance race rather than a sprint.