Kakao Mobility Advances Busan UAM Commercialization... Establishes Public-Private-Military Cooperation System

On the 11th, Volocopter conducted a test flight at the 'Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Flight Demonstration Event' held at the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center (SGBAC). Urban Air Mobility is a new air transportation system that operates in connection with other modes of transportation, using eco-friendly electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles that can be utilized within urban areas for the purpose of transporting passengers or cargo. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Kakao Mobility is participating in Korea's first public-private-military UAM (Urban Air Mobility) cooperation system together with the K-UAM commercialization consortium.

On the 27th, Kakao Mobility announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding for "UAM commercialization and industrial ecosystem creation utilizing Busan's marine environment" with 13 organizations including Busan City, LG Uplus, GS Construction, GS Caltex, Jeju Air, Pablo Aviation, Naval Operations Command, Army 53rd Division, Korea Maritime University, Busan Facilities Corporation, and Busan Technopark.

In May, Kakao Mobility launched a consortium for K-UAM commercialization together with LG Uplus, GS Construction, GS Caltex, Jeju Air, and Pablo Aviation, agreeing to cooperate in various fields such as ▲establishing Korean-style UAM standards ▲conducting individual demonstrations to accelerate service commercialization ▲jointly exploring additional future UAM-related business opportunities.

The six companies in the consortium will also participate in this country's first public-private-military UAM cooperation system, expanding the UAM commercialization base to Busan City and joining forces to create a rich industrial ecosystem.

Busan is fostering logistics and tourism as strategic industries, which are expected to be the initial markets for UAM. Additionally, it is evaluated to have optimal conditions for UAM commercialization due to the formation of cargo volume along the coastal road and the establishment of maritime corridors and airspace, combining safety and capacity.

The participating organizations in this agreement plan to soon start research on Busan City's UAM commercialization and aim to launch logistics and tourism services by 2026 through various demonstrations.

In particular, Kakao Mobility, an integrated MaaS (Mobility as a Service) operator, plans to study vertiport (vertical takeoff and landing site) locations based on mobility data and conduct passenger and logistics demonstration projects to promote early commercialization of Busan City's UAM services.

A Kakao Mobility official said, "Based on the know-how accumulated while operating the complete MaaS platform 'Kakao T,' we will take a step further toward a multimodal mobility vision that encompasses not only the movement of people but also goods, covering both ground and air."

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