Air taxis to be game changer for regional towns, says Greenbird

Sara Hales said electric aircraft would help connect smaller population centres to larger cities, as well as transforming services such as freight, medical delivery, and disaster response.

Hales was speaking to Australian Aviation’s new rotor In Focus magazine. To subscribe to this and all our premium content, click here.

Greenbird was established earlier this year by Aviation Projects director — and former Australian Aviation editor — Keith Tonkin alongside the AVISTRA managing director.

The target of the “collaboration platform” is to have a fully functioning air taxi system in place in the Queensland capital ahead of the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games.

“On the global scale, Australia is already a bit behind the many first world countries, which are already heavily invested at both an industry and a government level in the rollout of these new aviation capabilities,” Hales told Australian Aviation.

“Instead of thinking of just air taxis in and around the city of Brisbane, we see the opportunity for regional mobility that connects the smaller communities and the major centres right throughout that region, like the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.

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“That’s now a population of between 4–5 million people. So not only is it a better commercial opportunity, it’s also way more exciting in terms of what we can deliver for the people who live in those place.

“But this technology [also] has so many other potential applications, like government service, freight and urgent goods delivery, medical applications, emergency applications, disaster recovery applications.

“We are particularly about its use in the regional aviation sector, creating improved regional connectivity.”

Greenbird currently has 16 partners including AVISTRA, Aviation Australia, Aviation Projects, Skyports (UK), Archerfield Airport Corporation, Griffith University, AMSL Aero, Nautilus Aviation, Aviator Group, H2 Energy Company (h2ec), Electro.Aero, AvLogix Solutions, FlyFreely, and Swan River Seaplanes.

Australian Aviation last reported how Carbon fibre composites manufacturer Quickstep joined the group.

Quickstep already has a ‘Drone Centre of Excellence’ within the grounds of Deakin University in Victoria and its executive general manager, Steve Osborne, said the business has a key role to play in the sector.

“This rapidly growing aviation sector has aerospace manufacturing at its core and provides a massive opportunity for Quickstep and the broader Australian supply chain, from manufacturing through to aircraft operations,” said Osborne.