Hyundai Elevator : MOU with Daegu City to Construct UAM Vertiport

- Participation in developing Daegu City's UAM intermodal transit center… H-PORT selected for its suitability in urban environment

Hyundai Elevator announced on June 19 that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Daegu Metropolitan City to build a vertiport for urban air mobility (UAM).

Hyundai Elevator CEO Cho Jae-cheon, Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, and other officials gathered and exchanged opinions on the vertiport to be built in the K-2 airport redevelopment site at the signing ceremony held at Daegu City Hall at 11 a.m. on June 19.

Daegu plans to construct a UAM intermodal transit center connecting neighboring cities, including Pohang and Gyeongju, on the Daegu International Airport and the Daegu-Gyeongbuk New Integrated Airport sites. The transit center will link UAM, KTX, urban railways, and express buses. The city also intends to attract convenience facilities such as public parking lots, commercial facilities, shopping centers, duty-free stores, and exhibition and performance halls.

Hyundai Elevator is participating in Daegu's 'K-2 airport site development plan,' taking up the construction of the vertiport, the key to UAM projects.

The company received a positive response in Daegu after introducing the operating model of the H-PORT, a 'vertical sky garage-type vertiport' currently underway as the 'Development Project of Core Technology for Korean Urban Air Traffic (K-UAM) Safety Operation System' by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT).

H-PORT drew attention from the industry as an alternative to overcome the limitations of vertiports that require the same large land and space as existing airports. The company's selection as an implementing agency for MOLIT's project intensified the attention.

"The MOU will be the foothold for us to lead the UAM platform market based on H-PORT in the future," remarked Hyundai Elevator CEO Cho Jae-cheon. "We will actively cooperate for the newly developed K-2 airport site to serve as the vertiport-based next-generation transit hub for Daegu to leap forward as a new growth city," he added.

"The MOU with Hyundai Elevator is expected to truly open up the sky by connecting Daegu-Gyeongbuk New Integrated Airport and K-2 airport sites with major neighboring cities via UAM. Daegu will provide full administrative and policy support for Hyundai Elevator to set a new global standard in the UAM field," said Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo.

H-Port is a building for comprehensively controlling the sky garage, automatic parking and charging of drones, and passenger boarding and alighting using the automatic parking system technology. It is deemed an alternative to overcome the limitations of vertiports that require the same large land and space as existing airports by combining vertical and horizontal movement, Hyundai Elevator's core technology and strength.