South Korea is at the forefront of the global smart cities and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) revolution, setting new benchmarks for innovation and sustainability. With a strong focus on integrating cutting-edge technologies, the country is transforming urban landscapes into intelligent, interconnected ecosystems.
As one of the UK’s leading innovators in Vertiport Management Systems, Firstco were invited to speak at this year’s World Smart City Expo (WSCE) in Seoul, Korea. WSCE is a leading forum where industry innovators, city planners, and technology experts gather to explore the potential of smart technologies to shape our future cities. Our involvement in the “K-Smart City Vertiport Forum” highlights our commitment to developing cutting-edge solutions in both the urban and AAM space, ensuring cities of the future can leverage future mobility technologies to enhance connectivity and efficiency.
Aaron Erwin from Firstco shared the stage with other prominent leaders in the sector, contributing to insightful discussions on the latest advancements, challenges, and future prospects of the industry. The forum brought together key players, including manufacturers, innovators, policymakers, and researchers, fostering a collaborative environment where expertise and ideas were exchanged. Firstco's participation highlighted its role as a significant player in the development of AAM solutions and its commitment to influencing the future of urban transportation.
Firstco shared insights into the latest advancements in our Vertiport Management Systems (VMS) and described how it can play a crucial role in supporting the wider AAM ecosystem. Central to the success of AAM will be the leveraging of technology to create the efficiencies required to make the sector safe and commercially viable.
The VMS enables the remote management of a network of vertiports from a single command and control centre, optimising operations, ensuring efficiency, and driving sustainability.
As the AAM sector continues to evolve, collaboration between technology providers, infrastructure developers, and regulatory bodies will be essential to shape the urban landscapes of the future.
The top three event takeaways were:
- Government coordination accelerates progress
The K-UAM challenge demonstrates how a government-led initiative can unite stakeholders toward a common vision. By establishing clear goals, efforts can be coordinated between businesses, regulators, and academia to accelerate development. This approach helps to mitigate risk and creates a competitive advantage for the country in the global market.
- Collaboration will be key to success
By fostering partnerships between government agencies, aviation OEMs, infrastructure companies and research institutions, the AAM ecosystem can address technical, regulatory, and logistical challenges more effectively. There will not be one single winner in the AAM space, therefore, breaking silos and working together will help bring this new mobility system a reality.
- One size does not fit all
The requirements and Concepts of Operations (ConOps) will differ between country, region or operator depending on factors such as geography, weather, eVTOL and passenger type. A flexible approach needs to be taken when designing the supporting infrastructure to facilitate a diverse range of requirements.
To read more about the Vertiport Management System, visit: https://www.vertiports.firstco.uk.com/