Eve Air Mobility (Eve) is Embraer's independent brainchild dedicated to accelerating the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) ecosystem. One particular branch of the company is the state-of-the-art, newly developed Urban Air Traffic Management (UATM), for which Halo Aviation (Halo) has now become the launch customer.
All about UATM
Air traffic management encompasses all systems and services required to assist an aircraft from departure, transit, and landing. UATM works on a similar logic, but ultimately on a smaller scale as its only assists UAM vehicles and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) systems. Simply put, UATM provides structured traffic management systems with a single airspace authority and should be ergonomically designed to organize traffic flows while mitigating risks and providing necessary support.
The UATM branch from Eve's developing ecosystem presents a portfolio of services that seek to create a more favorable operating environment for the UAM industry to scale. Eve uses knowledge from Embraer's Air Traffic Control technology and system integrator company, Atech, to develop its UATM software.
This focuses on a procedures-based approach toward growing UAM operations while minimizing impacts on 'regular' air traffic control. Such services will safely integrate an increasing volume of UAM vehicles into the low-level airspace, as UAM flights typically affect neighborhoods, municipal transportation plans, infrastructure, commercial real estate investment, and more.
Andre Stein, co-Chief Executive Officer of Eve, said in a statement:
"Eve’s agnostic portfolio of solutions addresses the complexity of UAM networks, which require holistic and integrated services across the ecosystem that connect stakeholders to maintain and improve safety, optimize performance, and reduce operating costs."
The UAM market remains relatively small for now, and the spread of UATM is also limited to a small percentage of the aviation industry. However, Eve foresees that as the popularity of UAMs increases, the UATM system will eventually evolve and may have the potential to integrate into a single system.
In the distant future, the UATM system could interact with the global air traffic management ecosystem to share end-exchanged operational data with all air transportation models, from drones, helicopters, commercial aircraft, and other flying taxis.
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Landed a Letter of Intent
In June last year, Halo partnered with a non-binding commitment to order up to 200 of Eve's eVTOLs, which would make sense as to why Eve would choose the company to be the launch customer for its UATM solution. A Letter of Intent was signed between the two companies to solidify the collaboration in the further development and launch of the UATM software solution.
Celebrating the win for its UATM system, Stein said:
“We believe collaborations like ours are vital to fostering a thriving UAM market that will benefit communities and passengers with a new and additional mode of transport. Halo’s outstanding travel services, coupled with our solutions, make this partnership extremely promising."
As part of the signed agreement, Halo will acquire the software and use it to maximize its UAM operations. In contrast, Eve will continue to unlock the value and network performance of the UAM market to enable enhanced safe flexibility of the industry. Both companies also intend to develop an operational model of the UATM system to be deployed in specific missions and regions in the US and the UK, where Halo operates.
Andrew Collins, President and Chief Executive Officer of Halo, commented:
"Halo is happy to form a unique and collaborative partnership with Eve as they are working to deploy a series of agnostic solutions that will significantly drive the creation and overall network performance of UAM. In this case, we look forward to collaborating with Eve’s team to bring our current operational insight as a leader in the US and UK vertical lift to help develop and promote Eve’s UATM vision."
Bottom line
Eve expects to begin delivering its eVTOL vehicle to customers in 2026, which is also likely when its UATM system will become operational. It will be intriguing to see how the UATM system will become gradually integrated with the general air traffic management system before it eventually interacts with global systems. All low-altitude aircraft - piloted or automated - could soon begin operating within a singular system if such integration could happen, almost like NextGen or SESAR but on the scale of UAM vehicles.