Heads Up: SK Telecom Joins Forces With Joby Aviation To Launch Flying Taxis In South Korea

South Korean telecommunications giant SK Telecom, part of billionaire Chey Tae-won’s SK Group, announced that it is partnering with U.S. electric aircraft startup Joby Aviation to develop electric air taxis.

The two companies signed a collaboration agreement at Joby’s manufacturing facility in Marina, California, to develop electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles, or eVTOLs.

While plans to introduce the air taxis are still up in the air, the collaboration is a huge step into the area of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) for SK Group, a conglomerate best known for its semiconductors and telecoms businesses.

“By joining forces with Joby, a global leader in this field, we expect to accelerate our journey towards the era of Urban Air Mobility and lead the way on introducing this exciting new technology,” said Ryu Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom, when unveiling the partnership.

“Collaborating with leading global companies is essential to securing leadership in future industries, which we are confident will be driven by the growth of UAM, autonomous driving, and robots,” Ryu added. 

The five-seater air taxis made by Joby will have a maximum range of 150 miles in one trip and a top speed of 200 mph. Without making loud noises, the emissions-free ridesharing aircraft will not disturb populated areas, the companies said in a joint press release.

To hail these air taxis, users would likely need to book a spot on a vehicle through an app before boarding at a designated pickup location, though further details are unclear. SK Telecom stated last year that it hopes to develop a booking system for UAM rides, along with connections to other types of transport.

The Joby-SK air taxi service aligns with objectives set by the South Korean government for the coming decade. Last year, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport published a roadmap for UAM development that set a goal for commercial urban air travel to begin by 2025.

Such air travel could offer convenience, as traffic congestion is an issue in South Korea’s densely populated urban areas, such as the city of Seoul. For distances between 19 to 31 miles, trips that would take an hour by car could be reduced to 20 minutes by air, according to the ministry. 

SK Telecom added that the air taxis will leverage SK’s T Map, Korea’s largest mobility and navigation platform, and UT ride hailing service, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Uber established last year.

Over the past few years, SK has made strides into the UAM market, including a 2019 partnership with Hanwha Systems, part of the Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, along with Korea Airports and the Korea Transport Institute, to develop the infrastructure and aircraft required for UAM services. 

More broadly, under Chey’s leadership, the massive, family-controlled business expanded in recent years to invest in fields ranging from biotech to cryptocurrency to electric vehicle batteries. In 2019, Chey oversaw the spinoff of SK Square, an investment company dedicated to “aggressive investments” in new technologies, from SK Telecom.

Yet SK Telecom is just one company in the government-led “UAM Team Korea,” a group that will develop air mobility services. In November 2021, several companies leapt into the ring when Lotte signed an agreement with Chicago-based gyroplane manufacturer Skyworks Aeronautics to launch air taxis, and Kakao Mobility announced it would work with German UAM company Volocopter to develop air taxi services by 2025.

Existing industry players joined the fray that same month, when Supernal, a company formed by Hyundai Motor, Hyundai Mobis and Kia, announced its plans to develop an air taxis by 2028.

Beyond South Korea, the UAM market is slowly taking flight globally. A report from Morgan Stanley published in May 2021 forecasted that the UAM market would be worth $1 trillion by 2040 and $9 trillion by 2050. 

Updating a previous report published in 2018, the authors of the Morgan Stanley report suggested that eVTOLs could have the potential to “re-invent and re-scale” the market for transportation—similar to the use of automobiles in the early 20th century, or commercial airlines after World War II. 

In the United States, Joby has spent more than a decade developing the technology behind its aircraft, completing more than 1,000 test flights and gaining a unique certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 

With support from SK Telecom, Joby’s aerial ridesharing service will be operated directly by the company and offered to passengers via the Joby app or the Uber app in core U.S. markets.

Commenting on the partnership and the opportunity presented by the South Korean market, JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby, said he hoped to make air travel “a part of everyday life.” 

As Bevirt told Forbes in November 2020, this dream was a near future. “If we can fly, we can turn our streets into parks and fundamentally make our cities much nicer places to live in,” he said.