SINGAPORE (ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES) – The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and its regional partners have initiated joint efforts to establish safety regulations for air taxi and drone operations.
Their inaugural meeting, held on Thursday, marked the beginning of collaborative work toward creating a framework.
The goal is to develop a comprehensive set of safety guidelines and standards by 2025, providing a basis for each participating country to tailor regulations for their respective air taxi and drone industries.
The meeting, orchestrated by CAAS, brought together delegates from 17 civil aviation authorities across the Asia-Pacific region, including representatives from China and Japan.
Additionally, 24 private sector institutions and companies like Skyports Infrastructure and Vertical Aerospace actively participated in the discussions.”
“Regulators need to keep pace with technology for us to be able to reap the full benefits of ensuring security, as well as public and aviation safety,” said CAAS director-general Han Kok Juan. “This is not something that any one regulator can do on his own.”
The civil aviation authorities agreed that the two priority areas for drones are technical guidance and personnel training.
For air taxis, they agreed on six priority areas, including certification, collaboration between a country’s national agencies, and public education to promote this new form of air transport.
Collaboration among the regulators will allow CAAS to understand how risks are mitigated for air taxi operations, and to apply this information to regulatory requirements for Singapore, noted Mr Han.
Air taxis are small aircraft that can take off and land vertically, transporting passengers across short distances within a country.
Various models have been certified or are in the process of being certified in different countries.
In October, start-up EHang’s fully autonomous passenger-carrying air taxis were approved for operations in China, while the European Union Aviation Safety Agency is currently working on the certification of the Volocopter flying taxis in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Volocopter, which in 2022 announced plans to launch commercial air taxi flights in the Marina Bay area by early- to mid-2024, said it will give updates on this by the end of November.
