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St. Pete leaders to create air mobility task force with new era of transportation on the horizon

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Published  September 5, 2024 8:20pm EDT
St. Petersburg
FOX 13 News

St. Pete leaders planning for future transportation

eVTOLs, or "electric vertical takeoff and landing aircrafts," may soon be landing at Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg. They’re also often referred to as "air taxis."

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Something new may soon be landing at St. Pete’s Albert Whitted Airport.

"The first of these aircrafts are supposed to be certified for flight as early as next year, so you would expect that they would be trying to roll out some of the initial, maybe air taxi type routes, or some type of established routes, soon after that," said Richard Lesniak, the airport manager for the City of St. Pete at Albert Whitted Airport. 

Lesniak is talking about eVTOLs, short for "electric vertical takeoff and landing aircrafts." Some call them air taxis. They can move people and goods. They’re cheaper, safer, quieter and better for the environment, Lesniak said. 

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"Whether it's a commercial operation, a private ownership, we're definitely going to see them here. So, you know, we definitely want to plan for it and to be on the front end of that," he said.

The FAA certifies the aircraft and the city would be in charge of the parameters, like regulations on vertiports, which are like helipads with charging ports. City leaders decided at a meeting in August to create an advanced air mobility task force to help establish those parameters.

"We think Albert Whitted Airport would be a great first step for a landing and departure site for St. Petersburg. Now, eventually, that could maybe expand to other locations," Lesniak said.

"A lot of these operators would like to eventually have their own standalone vertiports on top of buildings or parking garages," he said.

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Tampa International Airport held the first ever eVTOL takeoff and landing test flight at a major U.S. airport in 2023 and hopes to have vertiports there in the near future.

"Tampa, St. Pete is the birthplace of commercial service airlines back in the early 1900s, the Benoist Airboat. So, you know, that would be great to be one of the first inaugural places, you know, to get this to kind of tie into that," he said. 

"The ultimate vision for the urban air mobility, it’s not just centric to the city of St. Pete. It’s a regional type thing," Lesniak said.

St. Pete City leaders are still figuring out the task force’s specific details, and city council would then have to approve those details.

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