A Volocopter aircraft conducts a test flight during an urban air mobility demonstration event at Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center. [Park Hae-muk]
A Volocopter aircraft conducts a test flight during an urban air mobility demonstration event at Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center. [Park Hae-muk]

South Korea is moving ahead with the designation of pilot operation zones for the early commercialization of urban air mobility (UAM).

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held a briefing Thursday morning at the KTX grand conference room at Seoul Station to present its plans and guidelines for drafting operational plans for the pilot zone designation process.

About 80 representatives from local governments and public institutions preparing UAM projects attended the event.

The ministry said it has been verifying core technologies, including traffic management systems, at demonstration project zones such as the Goheung demonstration complex and the Ara Waterway. It is now moving a step further by launching the pilot operation zone system to prepare for actual service.

Within the pilot operation zones, operators will build infrastructure such as vertiports, design and coordinate flight routes and airspace, and establish real operating environments to run a range of UAM services including passenger and cargo transport as well as tourism.

Regulatory exemptions under the Urban Air Mobility Act will also apply, allowing operators to accumulate real flight experience and progressively verify safety standards and operational frameworks as a foundation for early commercialization.

Local governments and public institutions seeking early commercialization must obtain pilot operation zone designation, which will allow them to run UAM services tailored to their regional characteristics.

Ahead of the formal application, the ministry plans to open a preliminary application call from Aug. 24 to Sept. 4 to review and support key considerations in advance, including airspace, vertiports and safety management.

"The pilot operation zone is the first step connecting UAM technology demonstration to actual service, and it is the core foundation for early commercialization in 2028," said Kim Ki-hun, head of the ministry's UAM policy division. "As this is a system being implemented for the first time, we will actively support local governments and public institutions so they can prepare their projects without disruption."


smh@heraldcorp.com