Advanced Air Mobility – UAE Kickstarts Development of ‘Cities in the Sky’

At the recent World Government Summit, the UAE announced a strategic partnership deal to bring urban air corridors and accompanying regulations for integrated Advanced Air Mobility operations to the UAE within the next 20 months.

In this insight, we explore the current state of play of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) regulations and operations in the UAE and the state’s clear ambitions to be the first to bring a fully integrated AAM ecosystem to its skies.

The UAE is one of several ambitious nations striving to win the global race for integrated Advanced Air Mobility¹ operations within its cities.

It was announced at the recent World Government Summit² (WGS), held in Dubai, that the UAE has begun work on the mapping of segregated air corridors and drafting of accompanying AAM regulations for piloted and autonomous electrical Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) operations. With this, the UAE has reinforced its clear ambition to be at the forefront of emerging technologies globally and demonstrated its commitment to be the first to bring a fully integrated AAM ecosystem to its skies.

The announcement revealed ambitious plans via a strategic partnership signed during the WGS 2025 between the UAE’s regulator, the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC) to bring defined urban aerial corridors and accompanying regulations for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations within them, during the next 20 months.

Urban Air Corridors

The GCAA will work together with ATRC entities (responsible for oversight of technological research within the UAE) including the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) and ASPIRE to utilise expertise from key industry stakeholders in airspace management and future technologies to ensure the safe integration of eVTOL operations into the UAE’s urban airspace, connecting major airports and landmarks across the country.

Whether housing remotely-piloted delivery drones, piloted eVTOL aircraft enhancing emergency services or fully autonomous passenger-carrying air taxis, the UAE’s new urban air corridors will offer innovative and seemingly endless solutions for passenger and cargo transport, emergency services and tourism within the country. Integrated AAM operations can open up a new world of convenience, streamline urban transport capabilities and relieve pressure on existing road, rail and waterway networks, improving connectivity within and between the UAE’s cities.

UAE Advanced Air Mobility Regulations

The UAE, via its regulator the GCAA, has always taken a proactive approach to the development of a regulatory environment for AAM operations. The first building blocks towards a framework of AAM regulations were put in place back in 2015.

In the 10 years since, the GCAA has continued to progress regulation at pace, culminating in the GCAA’s new “Emerging Technologies” section within the UAE Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR XII), which has seen the development of bespoke regulations on Urban Air Mobility Operations, Unmanned Aerial Systems and, in 2023, the UAE’s groundbreaking vertiport regulations (CAR-HVD), setting out the regulatory requirements for the design, certification and operation of vertiports³.

While there are currently no worldwide standardised AAM regulations⁴, ICAO held the first ICAO Advanced Air Mobility Symposium in September 2024, where key industry stakeholders from around the world gathered to discuss the future of operations and producing a set of worldwide, standardised AAM regulations.

The UAE’s GCAA has once again seized the initiative in beginning work on bespoke AAM regulations for operations within its Emirates’ urban environments, ahead of its global regulatory counterparts.

The Land of Opportunity

With many of the world’s 400 plus AAM companies aiming for certification and operations to commence by 2026 (in some cases as early as 2025), and a global network for AAM operations widely envisaged to be in place by 2030, the focus of aviation regulators and lawmakers across the globe has been on producing a regulatory framework which will promote safe and efficient AAM operations.

The UAE’s proactive approach to AAM regulation and ambitions to be the first country with fully integrated AAM operations has attracted some of the biggest players in the AAM sphere. By way of example, an agreement between eVTOL manufacturer Joby Aviation, Vertiport developer Skyports Infrastructure and the Dubai Government has granted Skyports exclusivity to develop a network of vertiports throughout Dubai and for Joby Aviation to be the Dubai RTA’s exclusive ‘air taxi’ operator within the Emirate. The California-based OEM are aiming to commence commercial operations by 2026.

Skyports have similarly been granted the rights to develop vertiports in Abu Dhabi and at the recent ICAO Global Implementation Support Symposium (GISS), held in Abu Dhabi in February 2025, Skyports and LODD announced plans for the design of new vertiports to be developed across three strategic locations in Abu Dhabi.

EVE Air Mobility (the AAM branch of Brazilian OEM Embraer) and UAE operator Falcon Aviation have also signed an LOI to provide eVTOL flights within Dubai and California-based Archer Aviation has signed a multiparty cooperation agreement for Archer to begin operations within Abu Dhabi by early 2026.

Our View: The Future of the UAE’s Advanced Air Mobility

The AAM industry has already seen more than US$16 billion invested, estimated to reach US$115 billion by 2035. With some of the biggest eVTOL manufacturers already starting limited operations and targeting commencement of widespread commercial operations as early as 2026, we are on the cusp of turning that investment into reality.

However, AAM ecosystems will bring additional and enhanced risks compared to those posed by traditional civil aviation operations. The volume of flights will be higher and operations will be much closer to the general public and the surrounding metropolitan environment. Add into this the rate of technological innovation in the AAM sphere and it is clear that the regulatory challenges are both novel and significant. 

Nevertheless, for over a decade the UAE’s GCAA has led the way in developing a solid regulatory framework for AAM operations in the Middle East. With the UAE’s development of segregated urban air corridors and accompanying regulations, we are now another step closer to fully integrated, safe Advanced Air Mobility operations in the world’s first ‘cities in the sky’.

Footnotes

1. Advanced Air Mobility can be summarised as encompassing the entire collection of new technology coming together to form a new ecosystem with new technology aircraft, utilising new technology operating and propulsion systems being operated in close proximity to highly populated urban areas.
2. Held under the theme ‘Shaping Future Governments’ and convening over 30 heads of state, 80 international and regional organisations and 140 government delegations.
3. Whilst CAR-HVD defines vertiports as any area of land, water or structure intended for the landing, take-off and movement of VTOL aircraft, they can be more fully described as landing facilities which encompass all sizes of operations from ‘vertistops’ (single vehicle landing locations) to ‘vertihubs’ (the largest structures within physical AAM infrastructure ecosystems).
4. ICAO has previously released model UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) regulations, which have been adopted in similar form by many states, but these relate mainly to issues of licensing, certification and aircraft operational limits rather than key issues of integrated operations and operational liability.