South Korea: GS Caltex to launch aircraft business for service stations
The oil company has formed a consortium with five other firms to use its network of stations to secure locations for areas designed for UAMs to take off and land.
GS Caltex has partnered with five companies in mobility, airline businesses and telecommunications to develop and operate air vehicles or airspace management services for the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) ecosystem. The oil company seeks to use its network of service stations as secure locations for aircrafts to land and take off.
Forecourt’s potential for these types of activities is huge due to stations being spreaded throughout key areas of cities. In addition, their open air space with no roofs can ease and accelerate the landing and departure of aircrafts.
GS Caltex has shown the future of acting as a UAM base at CES and Dubai Expo prior to this agreement. At CES 2021, the firm exhibited a futuristic gas station video, embodying a gas station being used as a drone delivery and UAM base.
The other companies that complete the consortium are LG Uplus, a telecom company; Kakao Mobility, a taxi-hailing service; Pablo Air, a domestic drone solutions firm; Jeju Air, a low-cost airline; and Vertical Aerospace, a British UAM manufacturer.
Together, they will participate in the first-phase demonstration project of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's 'Korean Urban Air Traffic Grand Challenge (K-UAM GC)' to enter the early ecosystem of the UAM industry and further explore additional business opportunities in the industry in the future.
