Rome is planning to have an air-taxi in place for visitors of the 2025 Vatican Jubilee.
Key Details
- All roads lead to Rome and apparently—so does traffic.
- In an attempt to let visitors bypass the city’s heavy traffic, Rome is instilling flying taxis to travel around the city.
- The city hopes to have the service running in 2024, before the year-long Vatican Jubilee celebration.
Why it’s important
In 2021 Rome was listed as the seventh worst city for traffic in the world, according to traffic analytics company INRX.
Cars wait for hours in traffic lines just to get around the city, but that could change soon. Rome is planning to add a flying taxi service to help visitors get around the city fast.
Rome’s traffic is bad on a daily basis, but in 2025 the city will be hosting a year-long celebration called the Vatican Jubilee which is expected to bring millions of people from across the world.
In an attempt to combat the traffic that comes with millions of visitors Rome is instilling the air-taxi service and hopes to have it in action by 2024.
A ride on the air-taxi could take passengers somewhere in 20 minutes that would typically take an hour or more by car.
The project is still waiting for final authorization from the Italian and European governments and is determined to be underway soon.
Other air-taxis underway
Rome isn’t the only place that could be seeing taxis in the air.
The U.S. could soon have air-taxis flying around after United Airlines made a big investment in electric vehicles.
United Airlines announced a $15-million investment in Eve Air Mobility, a company that produces electric vertical take-off and landing aircrafts (eVTOL).
United also signed a conditional purchase agreement for 200 four-seat eVTOLs plus 200 options with first deliveries expected as early as 2026, according to the Eve news release.
