How Much Will It Cost to Fly on eVTOL Air Taxis?

Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft are years away from entering service, but the discussion is already under way about passenger prices.

Thom Patterson

Friday, October 22, 2021 at 12:32 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Projected eVTOL air taxi passenger costs range from $2.25 to $11 per mile, with expert analysis suggesting a 25-mile trip could cost around $110, comparable to a black car service rather than a basic rideshare.
Key factors influencing passenger pricing include the necessity for "end-to-end" trip pricing (including ground transport to vertiports), the difficulty of achieving high aircraft utilization with an on-demand rideshare model, and potential costs associated with pilot training and compensation.
Despite billions in investment and optimistic launch targets, experts question the viability of current business models due to the immense capital required to simultaneously build aircraft manufacturing and airline operations, predicting many startups may fail even as the technology advances the civil rotorcraft industry.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis are years from being commercially available, but that’s not keeping people from asking: How much will passengers be asked to pay to fly on these new aircraft?

Altogether, investors have been betting billions of dollars on eVTOL companies like Joby Aviation, Lilium, Volocopter and others that are promising to build an entirely new form of convenient, safe, and environmentally friendly urban transportation.