Landings CEO Lisa Wright on Building Advanced Air Mobility Infrastructure

The Need for Advanced Air Mobility Infrastructure

• 💡 The electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) space faces a significant infrastructure bottleneck, similar to early electric vehicles, with a lack of landing and charging locations.
• 🚀 Landings is addressing this by building a network of rural vertiports to support point-to-point travel for eVTOLs.

Landings' Rural Focus and Vertiport Design

• 🎯 While many companies focus on urban centers, Landings prioritizes rural communities where land is less expensive.
• 🏗️ Vertiports are designed to be versatile, requiring minimal land (2-12 acres) and can be situated on various real estate types, including manufacturing, industrial, and retail sites.
• 💰 The cost for a small vertiport with slow charging is around $350,000, while larger facilities with more amenities can cost up to $3 million.

Business Model and Rollout Strategy

• 🗺️ Landings adopts an asset-light approach, similar to cell tower REITs like American Tower, by securing options on land rather than purchasing it outright.
• 🤝 They plan to share revenue with landowners after securing capital to build the vertiports and energy networks.

Powering Vertiports and Energy Solutions

• ⚡ Power is identified as a major challenge, but Landings requires less energy than data centers.
• ☀️ They plan to utilize solar power, with some vertiports co-located with solar farms, and also work with communities to provide battery backup systems for grid resilience.

Partnerships and Future Outlook

• 🤝 Landings is collaborating with various eVTOL companies, including Archer, Beta, and Joby, as well as short takeoff and landing (STOL) and sportcraft companies.
• 🗓️ While the speaker has sat in eVTOLs during test flights, widespread passenger use is anticipated within a year, most likely in the Middle East, with Dubai being a leader.