Chennai: Ubifly Technologies, the parent company of The ePlane Company, aims to commercialise its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft through airport-to-airport transit, intra-city commutes, along with air ambulance services and by establishing partnerships for building vertiports. The IIT-Madras based deep-tech startup has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Noida International Airport. Vertiports are like terminals for operating eVTOLs. Through this agreement, space will be allocated within the airport premises for trial runs, vertiports and charging stations. It also plans to align its standard operating procedures (SOPs) to accommodate eVTOL services.Beyond physical infrastructure, they aim to develop the regulatory SOPs, vertiport management systems and operational ecosystem specifically required to deploy ePlane’s e200X aircraft, targeting airport-to-airport transit, intra-city commutes, and emergency air ambulance services across the region. “Deploying electric air taxis requires more than just building the aircraft. It demands the parallel development of ground infrastructure, regulatory frameworks and operational procedures,” said Dr Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy, founder and director of Ubifly Technologies (The ePlane Company). “This MoU allows us to systematically validate our operational models using drone trials before transitioning to piloted e200X flights. It is a step-by-step approach to ensuring that when our aircraft are certified, the airport ecosystem is fully equipped to deliver,” he added.The startup received about Rs 285 crore as optionally convertible debt under the RDI program and recently showcased its full-scale passenger aircraft prototype. ePlane has a manufacturing facility at Thaiyur, on the outskirts of Chennai and targets an initial scale of 80 aircraft by 2028.
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