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Gulf Times reported that cargo flights are seen to lead the deployment of air taxi services throughout the Gulf region. UAE and Saudi authorities spent 2025 and early 2026 shifting cargo drones and hybrid VTOL aircraft from demonstration into trials while operators began moving blood samples, medicines and urgent supplies across live routes. Healthcare freight is generating the first consistent demand profile, an assessment from Aviation Business ME found, even as passenger eVTOL flights continued in parallel particularly in Abu Dhabi.
The General Civil Aviation Authority accelerated its framework at the start of 2025 by mapping national air corridors for air taxis and cargo drones with timelines pointing to implementation within 20 months. Abu Dhabi followed with a planned network of more than 10 vertiports linked to Zayed International Airport, Al Bateen Executive Airport, Yas Island and Saadiyat, according to the same assessment. Such infrastructure gives medical cargo direct access into urban transport systems while passenger aircraft still dominate headlines.
Abu Dhabi-based LODD has moved furthest into application after partnering with 7X and EMX to run the emirate’s first autonomous parcel delivery pilot in June 2025. The company’s Hili aircraft completed a test flight in Al Ain by November carrying up to 250 kilogrammes with space for two Euro pallets, placing it in the middle-mile category. Oman-based AeroVecto is developing its Shuttle hybrid VTOL platform for regional transport and ESBAAR has already entered service with drone cargo operations in industrial sectors.
Regional developers are aligning around cargo opportunities rather than waiting for full passenger certification and are instead targeting short repeatable commercial routes, Aviation Business ME reported. The UAE began formally mapping air corridors for air taxis and cargo drones in a project led by the GCAA with Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute and ASPIRE. Dubai is working in parallel toward what could become the world’s first fully integrated city-scale air taxi network.
Joby holds an exclusive six-year agreement with the Roads and Transport Authority backed by four initial vertiports at Dubai International Airport, Palm Jumeirah, Downtown and Dubai Marina while Archer Aviation partners with Abu Dhabi Airports. The MEA urban air mobility market secured 138.3 million dollars in investments in 2023 with growth projected at 41.9 percent from 2024 to 2030 according to industry figures cited by Forbes. Saudi Arabia has signed agreements with Joby and other developers as it eyes early-stage operational capability before 2030.
Vertiport needs vary depending on the types of eVTOL aircraft in use, the environment through which they travel and the services they aim to provide according to executives quoted by AGBI. Skyports has exclusive rights to build vertiports in Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah where it is working with Joby Aviation on facilities expected early this year. The first two sites at Dubai International Airport and Marina are under construction with two more to follow on the Palm and Dubai Mall before the end of 2026.
