About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


35 Air & Space Law. 1 (2022-2023)

handle is hein.journals/airspaclaw35 and id is 1 raw text is: THE AIR L A AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION & SPACE w E R VOLUME 35, NUMBER 1, 2022 Readying for Takeoff: Challenges and Opportunities for International eVTOL Operations By Marcelo L. Garcia and Amna Arshad The COVID-19 pandemic not only challenged airlines' adap- tive capacity, but also prompted the restructuring of costs, opera- tions, and business models across the aviation industry.' Growing support for the global net-zero carbon agenda by international organizations,2 regional and national governments,3 and industry associations' will likely affect how airlines do business and realign their revenue streams and networks in the coming years. In the meantime, regional air connectivity has emerged as a key policy priority for many governments around the world, and some airlines are already capitalizing on the growth of inter- and intraregional demand These market conditions make cross-border electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) operations rele- vant for existing and future air operators. The hurdles facing eVTOL aircraft operations-and other Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) solutions-within national boundaries are numerous and even more heightened if transposed into an international cross- border context. However, governments, industry, and capital investment funds should have significant opportunities to shape the future of a nascent industry and facilitate the launch of cross-border eVTOL opera- tions in the coming years. An in-depth exploration of the legal aspects affect- ing commercial eVTOL services is beyond the scope of this article. Instead, this article investigates the legal issues that may affect cross-border eVTOL operations in the U.S.-Canada context-which may also apply to other cross-border environments in other regions of the world-providing an initial assessment of the framework for operating international scheduled air services and potential regulatory challenges such as airline designation, passenger facilitation, aviation safety and security, as well as infrastructure-related antitrust considerations. The Rise and Commercial Potential of Transborder eVTOL Operations Until now, the use of eVTOL has been discussed within the context of AM' and Urban Air Mobil- ity (UAM),7 focusing mainly on inter- and intracity air taxis' and regional connectivity.' The assumption hitherto has been that eVTOL operations would be deployed domestically. However, the growing demand for price-com- petitive and point-to-point regional air services, compounded by the imperatives associated with the global net-zero carbon agenda, may justify a busi- ness case for the operation of eVTOL flights across the U.S.-Canada border. With 90 percent of the Canadian population living within 150 miles of the U.S. bor- der, the so-called transborder market includes densely populated city pairs under 200 miles apart that could be operated by eVTOL: Windsor-Cleveland (170 miles), Vancouver-Seattle (142 miles), Victoria-Seattle (105 miles), Toronto-Buffalo (100 miles), and Windsor- Detroit (3 miles), to name a few. From a purely commercial perspective, airlines asso- ciated with the purchasing of eVTOL aircraft seem to agree that scheduled eVTOL flights are preferable to continued on page 12 Forum on Air and Space Law Published in The Air & Space Lawyer, Volume 35, Number 1, 2022. © 2022 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.