"Korea's Urban Air Mobility Technology at 70% Level of Advanced Countries"

Only Four Development Companies... Early Stage of Industry Formation

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] While the importance of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) as a solution to the saturated urban traffic problem is being highlighted, it has been revealed that Korea's related technology level is still only about 60-70% of the world's best. There are claims that government investment support is crucial due to low technological competitiveness.

On the 28th, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) stated in its report titled "Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Trends and Challenges" that government investment support, related regulatory improvements, and the establishment of a commercialization foundation are necessary to foster the UAM ecosystem. UAM is a concept encompassing businesses related to urban air transportation, including aircraft and components, takeoff and landing facilities, operation services and control, transportation linkage platforms, and aircraft maintenance. It is evaluated as an eco-friendly future transportation mode that integrates advanced technologies.

The characteristics of UAM include ▲no need for separate runways and operability with only minimal vertical takeoff and landing space, making it a future urban transportation mode capable of solving saturated urban traffic problems and enabling fast transport, ▲use of electricity as a power source resulting in zero carbon emissions and low noise, allowing operation in urban areas as an eco-friendly transportation mode, and ▲a convergence of cutting-edge hardware and software technologies such as aviation technology, advanced component materials, collision avoidance, autonomous flight, AI, and ICT.

The UAM industry is not only about aircraft development but also has a significant industrial ripple effect in fuel cells (hydrogen, solid-state batteries, etc.), autonomous driving, transportation services, new materials, and defense industries. The market size is expected to reach $1.4739 trillion (approximately 1,800 trillion KRW) by 2040. By application, the passenger transport aircraft market is expected to reach $851 billion (approximately 1,000 trillion KRW), and cargo transport $413 billion (approximately 500 trillion KRW).

However, Korea still has a long way to go. Among the 343 global companies developing UAM aircraft, Korea accounts for only 1.2% with 4 companies (Hyundai Motor Company, Korean Air, KAI, Korea Aerospace Research Institute), which is far behind the US with 130, the UK with 25, Germany with 19, and France and Japan with 12 each. However, as the UAM industry is in its early formation stage, recently large corporations with technological capabilities such as Hanwha Systems and Hyundai Motor Company have formed consortia with telecom companies like SK Telecom and KT, as well as Incheon and Gimpo Airports, and are promoting pilot projects aiming for commercialization in 2025. They are also actively investing, so the situation is not entirely pessimistic.

Yoo Hwan-ik, Director of Corporate Policy at FKI, emphasized, "The UAM industry has very high growth potential due to various upstream and downstream related industries, but as it is in the early stage of industry formation, international competitiveness is weak and technological competitiveness is low, making government investment support important." He added, "Although our aviation technology such as aircraft development is weak, it is necessary to seek global UAM market opportunities focusing on areas where we have strengths such as battery and ICT technologies." He further stated, "The government should actively promote activation policies such as easing flight restrictions in the metropolitan area, relaxing data sharing restrictions, improving related regulations, and establishing a commercialization foundation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.