Altaport, creator of automated management systems for airport and heliport operators, says it is now working to offer those same capabilities to vertiports that will soon be enabling flights of next-generation electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) planes.
Altaport says its software- and computer-driven solution already provides a range of automated services to airport and heliport operators in Brazil, Mexico, and the US. Those functions include asset scheduling, ground movement safety monitoring, passenger management, fee collection, operational coordination, and ecosystem communications. Now, Altaport is looking to extend those same capabilities to eVTOL flight activity with its vertiport automation software (VAS).
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Altaport’s automated management tool is designed to produce the same operational, security, and income efficiencies for future eVTOL vertiport operators that it has for airport and heliport clients. Just as importantly, company officials predict, those plug-and-play, self-functioning capabilities will be a boon to the sector when craft and service suppliers discover work preparing ground infrastructure hasn’t kept pace.
“The industry is severely unprepared for the demand to come,” said Cory Cozzens, an Altaport cofounder who created the company with former Google and Airbus employees. “We’re only a couple years away from the introduction of eVTOLs, but most landing infrastructure managers are still using archaic toolsets to manage their operations.”
The lag in vertiport preparation relative to the rapid advance of eVTOL development risks providing an even greater crunch due to the very high rate of traffic expected to be created by both passenger and cargo craft.
According to some estimates on maturing eVTOL markets cited by Altaport – including studies by NASA – an average individual vertiport serving a single metropolitan area will be managing over 100 flights per hour, in conjunction with about 300 similar facilities in the same area handling the same frequencies.
That extremely high cadence of dense traffic – much of it automated and unpiloted – will more than challenge human vertiport management capacities. That, Altaport says, is why its solution is perfectly suited for the arrival of eVTOL flights in a world where ground structures and services are not ready.
With many existing airports and heliports already studying the feasibility of adding vertiport activities to their operations, meanwhile, Altaport says it is already drawing experience and insight from work with those clients to further develop its VAS vertiport solution for eVTOL terminals.
At the same time, companies specializing specifically in vertiport construction are already incorporating Altaport systems into the conceptual and building plans they offer.
“Altaport’s VAS platform will play a critical role in establishing and growing a safe and efficient eVTOL ecosystem,” said Grant Fisk, cofounder of vertiport company Volatus Infrastructure. “We believe their VAS is a key piece in the Volatus vertiport package, which is why we partnered with Altaport early on. We particularly appreciate how their work with heliports today is going to directly translate to and benefit the eVTOL world.”
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