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Air taxis were long a pitch-deck promise. That era is over. In Dubai, Paris or Rome, vertiports are being built, test flights are under way and ecosystems are forming. For airports, airlines, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and Maintenance, Repair and Operations providers (MRO), Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) opens new markets and revenue pools — but it also threatens established positions and market shares.
Advanced Air Mobility brings electric, hydrogen and hybrid aircraft into the air, designed to take off and land vertically or on very short runways. The result is a cleaner mode of air transport — primarily between city centres, suburbs and airports, but also out to remote communities. Adoption is being driven by three technology shifts and three market forces:
- Batteries are gaining energy density and charging speed while production costs fall.
- Distributed propulsion and noise-optimised propeller designs improve efficiency and, crucially, public acceptance.
- 5G and digital systems enable remotely piloted and autonomous operations plus smarter management of low-altitude traffic.
In parallel, congested road networks demand alternatives that bypass bottlenecks, travellers expect faster and more flexible options, and governments are pushing zero-emission transport.
Where will the money sit?
AAM is additive revenue and a reshuffle of the existing value capture. Our value chain analysis1 puts only 10–15% of revenue with the aircraft OEM; the remaining 85–90% sits downstream in service operations (25–30%), infrastructure (20–30%), booking platforms (20–25%), MRO (10–15%) and airspace integration (1–5%). The competition doesn’t strictly follow revenue pools. It’s fiercest among aircraft manufacturers, where well-funded programmes compete for certification, and in booking, where entry barriers and switching costs are low. Infrastructure is contested for permits and sites; each location then tends toward a local monopoly. MRO and airspace management look quieter, but not because they’re unattractive: MRO is likely to be held by OEMs through proprietary data and tooling, Air Traffic Management (ATM) / Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) by regulation and incumbent air-navigation providers.
1 Our analysis was conducted as part of a strategy project to determine the approximate value distribution.
Ecosystem - the key to take-off
No stakeholder can capture AAM alone — establishing an ecosystem is key. A vertiport by itself doesn’t enable AAM. Take airports as an example. Two questions come before any investment decision. First, what’s the value at risk in not reacting? If vertiports are operated by someone else, passenger flows and the ground-side revenue attached to them may shift with them and away from established airports close by. Second, how do you build what conventional airport operations don’t provide? Vertiport operations, charging and energy management, eVTOL ground handling and integration into a digital booking journey demand capabilities and assets that differ from today's. Each can be developed organically, acquired, or secured through partnership.
From plans to operations
Across the industry, players have moved from planning to building. Dubai’s RTA and Skyports have completed and obtained certification for the first purpose-built vertiport near DXB. Additional sites are under development, while commercial passenger service is targeted for late 2026. In Paris and Rome, airport operators have built test vertiports and flown eVTOL trials to validate operations before scaling. United and Archer are preparing airport-to-city routes, Delta and Joby airport shuttle services in New York and Los Angeles. These strategic plays show how the market is forming and ecosystems are being established. For other stakeholder it’s now key to look at AAM strategically, define its future role in the market and start positioning.
Because AAM is developing unevenly across markets and organisations are impacted in different ways, a view tailored to their assets, customers and ambitions is key. The strategic task isn’t simply to “act” or “wait”, but to determine where AAM could materially affect their business, which role is credible and which signals should trigger further commitment. At PwC we have supported various clients in assessing their exposure, testing positioning options and translating them into sequenced roadmaps. This creates a fact-based path forward while preserving flexibility as technology, regulation and demand evolve.
If the topic raised questions or interests feel free to reach out and let’s discuss!
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