Urban-Air Port and Sarla Aviation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on building the infrastructure foundations, operational frameworks, and deployment strategies required for Advanced Air Mobility in India.
As India positions itself to become a major market for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), the collaboration focuses on developing the essential physical and regulatory ecosystem beyond just the aircraft. The joint effort intends to integrate Urban-Air Port’s rapidly deployable vertiport infrastructure with Sarla Aviation’s Shunya electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) platform. To achieve this, the companies plan to establish a phased roadmap for vertiport deployment across Indian cities, evaluate potential sites in key metropolitan and state government-identified regions, and engage with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to support future commercial operations.
Urban-Air Port brings experience from developing Air One in Coventry, UK, which served as a fully operational AAM hub demonstrator integrating aircraft operations, charging infrastructure, passenger handling, and regulatory engagement in a live urban environment. The company has previously collaborated on projects with global aerospace and mobility partners including Honda, Supernal, and Airbus. By combining this operational expertise with indigenous aircraft innovation, the partnership aims to ensure that infrastructure readiness and regulatory planning advance in parallel with aircraft certification.
Andrea Wu, CEO at Urban-Air Port, commented, “Urban-Air Port has always believed that the real challenge for Advanced Air Mobility is not a single demonstration site, but commercialisation at network scale.
Four vertiports do not make a transport system. While much of the industry remains focused on aircraft certification, we have spent the last seven years focused on the infrastructure, operations and deployment models required to support AAM at scale. To make AAM successful, the industry needs repeatable, rapidly deployable infrastructure that can be integrated into existing cities and expanded alongside demand.
“India has the population, ambition and urban growth to become one of the world’s most important AAM markets and one of the first to demonstrate commercial deployment at meaningful scale. Sarla is building an aircraft designed for India and Urban-Air Port has spent years solving the infrastructure challenge. Together, we can move beyond demonstrations and start building a real network.”
