Fancy taking a scenic flight around Marina Bay?

Tourists looking for a new way to take in the sights in the Marina Bay area may be able to do so from the sky if a proposed route for the first commercial air taxi flights here gets the nod from the authorities.

The proposed flight over a 12km route, operated by air taxi pioneer Volocopter, is expected to be ready for launch around early-to mid-2024, with the hiring of key staff such as pilots, engineers and service crew expected to start by end-2023 at the latest, said Volocopter's chief commercial officer, Mr Christian Bauer, yesterday.

Mr Bauer spoke to reporters during a tour of a newly launched public exhibition at ITE College Central in Ang Mo Kio, which will showcase a scale model of Volocopter's fully electric urban air taxi VoloCity. The two-seater aircraft has a range of 35km and a speed of 90kmh, and is part of the German company's longer-term vision for urban air mobility in Singapore.

If all goes to plan, Volocopter's maiden commercial flight here will take passengers from Marina South to the Marina Reservoir and back at an altitude of 100m to 150m. The journey, which will also take in parts of Kallang Basin near Tanjong Rhu, will last about 15 minutes.

Mr Bauer said the proposed route is in "the final approval stage".

"Why a tourist flight? Because... Singapore does not have a congestion problem on the ground, but you have around 20 million visitors per year who want to have excitement, an experience. We believe such a breathtaking sightseeing excursion would be a brilliant way to start off," he added.

Another air taxi route around Sentosa - also aimed at tourists - is next in the pipeline for Volocopter.

In 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, 19.1 million travellers visited Singapore, spending close to $28 billion.

Volocopter's air taxis look like small helicopters with multiple mini rotor blades. But unlike regular copters, these aircraft have been touted as a safer, quieter, more convenient and more environmentally friendly way to travel.

They will take off from and land on vertiports - named for the way the aircraft take off and land vertically. Volocopter said its vertiports take only three to four months to build if they are constructed on cleared land. It aims to have four to six of them in Singapore and South-east Asia by 2030.

In the meantime, the firm is in the process of obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and the European authorities. A slew of tests, flight trials and evaluations are being conducted to ensure the air taxis are as safe as commercial aircraft.

Volocopter's chief risk and certification officer, Mr Oliver Reinhardt, said there is a working arrangement between CAAS and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to concurrently validate the VoloCity aircraft. Certification is expected in early 2024.

Mr Tan Kah Han, CAAS chief technology officer and senior director at CAAS' Unmanned Systems Group, said the authority is working with partners like Volocopter to evaluate possible routes and develop an operating framework here. CAAS is also working with EASA to develop regulations to ensure public and aviation safety.

Asked how much each air taxi flight will cost here, Mr Bauer said only that Volocopter's first flights in Singapore will be about 70 per cent to 75 per cent cheaper than the price of a helicopter ride. According to one local helicopter operator, it costs about $2,500 to charter a helicopter for sightseeing in Singapore, and this is only for the flight.

Mr Bauer said the aim in the next five to seven years is to make air taxis as affordable as a premium taxi ride. By 2030, Volocopter also plans to hire up to 500 direct employees here, and induce the creation of another 800 jobs.