In accordance with the plan to promote major new growth projects, UAM (urban air mobility) will be launched in the metropolitan area in August 2024.

At the emergency economic ministers’ meeting held at the government complex in Seoul on the 14th, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Choi Sang-mok discussed the following: △follow-up plan for the livelihood discussion forum in the housing sector, △follow-up plan for the semiconductor mega cluster, △tailored support measures for cutting-edge industry clusters, △promotion plan for major new growth projects, and △K-food+ export expansion strategy.

The government has announced a roadmap for Korea-type urban air mobility (K-UAM) and is preparing for commercialization of UAM through the K-UAM Grand Challenge, a large-scale demonstration project, starting in 2022.

The open field demonstration involving a consortium of six private companies began in August of last year, and a flight demonstration was conducted in Goheung, Jeollanam-do in November, and will continue until December 2024.

A demonstration project is scheduled to begin in the metropolitan area in the second half of this year. The urban demonstration will be conducted from August 2024 to June 2025 for consortia that passed Stage 1.

Phase 1 will test the aircraft and integrated operability verification and noise measurements, while Phase 2 will determine safety in a full-scale urban environment and near the airport.

The demonstration project aims to commercialize UAM for the first time in 2025 and expand commercialization areas in 2030.

The government plans to announce a detailed roadmap including an initial commercialization schedule in June 2024. It also plans to propose a bill to promote legal revisions for business-related institutionalization later this year. This is expected to provide a basis for operational support for early-stage operators in business, security, etc.

Starting in April of this year, the UAM bill proposed by the government will be implemented, and in accordance with regulatory exceptions to promote the use of UAM, application of existing aviation-related laws and regulations, except for the minimum regulations necessary for safety, will be excluded in demonstration project areas and pilot operation areas.

Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, “As there are still difficulties in many areas of the people’s economy, we will focus all policy capabilities on recovering the people’s economy,” and emphasized, “Above all, we will ensure that the discussions at the people’s livelihood discussion forum quickly lead to results, and each ministry will work as a team to swiftly implement measures so that the voices from the field are reflected in policies as much as possible to improve the lives of the people.”