Florida’s AAM strategy passes legislative hurdle – AAM training for state officials underway

Senate Bill 1662, Florida’s advanced air mobility implementation strategy, has just passed the Florida Legislature, according to an Eve Air Mobility Linkedin post. It now awaits the Governor’s signature.

According to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), two of the seven FDOT districts so far (Fort Lauderdale and Miami) have completed AAM training for local government officials, with Tampa scheduled for next week, Orlando in June and then three more over the course of the following three months.

Among other transport related issues, the bill: “defines key AAM terms in Florida Statutes, designates an AAM expert within the Florida Department of Transportation to assist local governments in their planning efforts, incorporates AAM and vertiports into the statewide aviation system plan, streamlines vertiport approvals, prioritizes grants for emerging technologies and aviation workforce training programs at airports and supports aviation workforce development and transportation-related research and development efforts,” said the Eve Air Mobility post.

“Eve has long seen Florida as a natural early adopter of AAM and we have been working alongside the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for many years to prepare the state,” said the Linkedin post. “Florida is leading the way across the country and have a number of tools that you can find on the FL DOT website along with some of Eve’s work including a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) study for Miami Dade County, examining how eVTOLs could integrate with the city’s infrastructure and daily life.”

According to an FDOT AAM factsheet: “Early operations will take place primarily at existing airports and heliports. As the industry scales, a new sub-category of heliports, vertiports, will also support eVTOL operations. Vertiports will range from single landing pads with limited infrastructure to larger facilities with multiple landing pads, aircraft parking stands, and a terminal building. Most vertiports will also have aircraft charging stations, and communications and weather infrastructure.”