Traffic here in Florida is getting intense.
I was crawling along I-95 the other day, already late to pick up the kids, and it highlighted a frustration many of us feel daily.
The average American driver already loses 43 hours a year to congestion. That’s nearly a full work week!
In major cities like Miami (74 hours), LA (88 hours), or Chicago and New York (a staggering 102 hours), it’s far worse.
When you spend that much time stuck in traffic, it’s natural to fantasize about the DeLorean at the end of Back to the Future, where Doc Brown says: “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”
Today, that fantasy is a lot closer to reality than you might think.
Vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, often dubbed “air taxis,” are about to transform urban transportation.
They might not be flying DeLoreans, but these battery-powered vehicles combine the vertical lift capability of helicopters with the flight efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft.
This enables them to take short flights over congested cities.
And it’s not some pie-in-the-sky technology. The aviation industry has been investing in this concept since about 2014.
But just last week, news broke that could launch the investment potential of air taxis into the stratosphere…
Ready For Takeoff
Air taxis are part of a new type of aviation the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) calls Advanced Air Mobility, or AAM.
It represents one of the most dramatic shifts in transportation technology we’ve seen in decades.
In addition to ferrying passengers above congested highways, AAM aircraft could eventually be used for emergency response, firefighting, cargo delivery and search and rescue operations.
And the FAA is clearing the way for them to become as common as a yellow cab.
In September 2022, the FAA published the first federal vertiport design standards to guide the construction of AAM infrastructure at airports, stadiums and downtown rooftops across the country.
In May 2023, it released an updated blueprint for how these vehicles will operate in and around cities, including corridor-based flight routes and communication protocols with air traffic control.
And in October 2024, the agency outlined new performance-based rules that determine how these aircraft will be certified, who can fly them and how they’ll integrate into the National Airspace System (NAS).
That’s right on track with my predictions, and I believe the ultimate goal is to have operations at scale by 2028.
You see, investments in passenger eVTOLs really gained steam in 2021 thanks to the SPAC boom taking several of these eVTOL companies public.
But after $7 billion in investments was reported in 2021 according to McKinsey & Company, only $3 billion was reported in the following year.
That tough 2022 separated the winners from the losers in this space.
Many of these companies went public too early and lost much of their valuation in 2022. Some were reduced to penny stocks, and others either went out of business or were acquired by other companies.
This left behind companies with a strong track record and definable goals that they could reasonably achieve in the near future.
More on that in a moment…
But for now, it’s important to understand we are nearing an inflection point in this industry where expectations are starting to build around it.
What’s more, the tech has progressed to the point where companies can actually deliver on those expectations.
By 2030, McKinsey expects the AAM industry to have bigger fleets and offer many more flights per day than the world’s largest airlines.
It projects that these flights will be shorter, averaging only 18 minutes, with fewer passengers on board (between one and six, plus a pilot).
Morgan Stanley projects it as a $1.5 trillion market by 2040, while Deloitte expects $115 billion in revenue from the industry by 2035.
Michael Leskinen, president of United Airlines Ventures, which has invested in many eVTOL startups, believes these crafts could completely disrupt the $49 billion helicopter industry.
According to Leskinen, eVTOLs will be safer because they are electric, which makes them cheaper to maintain, and they have fewer points of failure than helicopters, making them a better alternative.
And that brings us to today.
We are at the point where some of these eVTOL companies are on the cusp of commercializing this tech.
That’s why last week’s news was such a big deal…
Here’s My Take
On Thursday, it was announced that Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE: ACHR) was selected as the “official air taxi provider” for the Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028.
The company and LA28, the games’ host organization, will look to integrate Archer’s Midnight aircraft in a variety of ways, such as transporting VIPs, fans and athletes.
Archer’s air taxis might also be used to provide support for emergency services and security.
I predicted that air taxis would be a feature of the L.A. Olympics where traffic is a major problem.
That’s why Archer Aviation was our first recommendation when we launched Strategic Fortunes PRO in March of this year.
If you’re not familiar with our PRO service, it’s a dedicated space for our “X-Zone” opportunities — those early-stage, high-potential plays we typically don’t cover in the base service.
We created PRO specifically to target these kinds of breakthrough innovations before they hit the mainstream.
If you’re interested in investing in cutting-edge technologies like air taxis…
Click on this link to learn more about Strategic Fortunes PRO
So you can get in before we identify our next big winner.
Because last week alone ACHR shot up 54%…
And it has rocketed over 83% in the seven weeks since we launched the service.
Source: Yahoo Finance
This recent news only reinforces the potential we saw in the company.
Archer expects to be allowed to fly commercially in the U.S. next year and to be flying “at scale” by 2028, when the Summer Olympics begin.
As someone who hates Florida traffic, I can’t help but look forward to the day when air taxis become a reality here.
Once that happens, I’ll be thrilled to leave the road behind.
Regards,
Ian KingChief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing
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