Hanwha Systems has formed a K-UAM Dream Team consortium with Korea Airports Corporation and SK Telecom with the aim of providing Korea's first commercial UAM service in Jeju, South Korea by 2025. The consortium members will develop a pilot service connecting Jeju International airport and the island's major tourist attractions, and build vertiports plus a UAM traffic management system.

The K-UAM Dream Team signed an MOU for the Jeju UAM Pilot Project with Jeju Province earlier this month. Jeju is Korea's largest tourist attraction, which the consortium hopes will make it easy to secure public acceptance, and the navigation resources at the airport will support rapid commercialisation. The consortium plans to modify and supplement the current aviation system and infrastructure.

CEO Seong-cheol Eoh says: "Hanwha Systems is providing a total solution for the development, operation and infrastructure of advanced air vehicles (AAV), and we have a goal to verify the safety of UAM and to pre-emptively prepare operational and technical standards suitable for domestic conditions. The K-UAM Dream Team consortium will do its best to lower the psychological hurdles for new transportation in Jeju, where tourism and cultural resources are concentrated, and to lead the future mobility paradigm."

To support the Jeju UAM pilot project, Hanwha will develop, manufacture, sell, operate and maintain UAM aircraft while developing navigation and control solutions. Korea Airports Corp will build UAM vertiports and operate navigation safety facilities by providing UAM traffic management service using existing infrastructure. SK Telecom will be responsible for providing UAM services with US-based Joby Aviation, developing and operating a mobility platform and taking responsibility for the UAM communication system. Jeju Province will provide the UAM operation site and infrastructure, and support licensing and administration for promotional purposes.

Sensor, radar, avionics and ICT technologies company Hanwha entered the Korean UAM market in July 2019 with its eVTOL Butterfly. It is planning to conduct the first flight test of a full scale, unmanned prototype next year and is in the process of acquiring a type certificate from the FAA in 2025 with development partner Overair.

Currently, Hanwha is also focusing on the development of communication, navigation, surveillance and information (CNSi) infrastructure control system technology required for UAM operation.

The first and second stages of the K-UAM Grand Challenge government demonstration project, 2023-2024, will allow the consortium to verify safety; these will take place in Goheung, Jeollanam-do and the metropolitan area. It will build ground infrastructure such as vertiports and develop complex urban UAM operations in Jeju that will incorporate future technologies.

Korea Airports Corp president Hyung-joong Yoon adds: "The Jeju pilot project is based on our know how and technology, which has been responsible for Korea's aviation safety for the past 40 years, as well as future technology and capital possessed by Hanwha Systems and SK Telecom, and support from Jeju Province. This project is the hyper-cooperative business model that combines all the resources from these organisations, and it will serve as an opportunity for Korea to take off as a global leader in the UAM industry. We will continue to take on challenges through cooperation with the private sector in the future."

SK Telecome CEO Young-sang Ryu says: "We will grow Jeju, an eco-friendly tourist attraction, based on UAM's innovation, to become a game changer for future mobility services. We plan to create tangible results through close collaboration of the K-UAM Dream Team consortium and set mid-to long-term goals."

Hanwha Systems, Korea Airports Corporation andSK Telecom have been collaborating to create a UAM ecosystem since last year, and in April, they launched the K-UAM Dream Team consortium with the Korea Transport Institute and the Korea Meteorological Institute.