Neom will adopt flying taxis but Saudi Arabia will not phase out oil

• Saudi Arabia is planning a zero-carbon region called The Line in its Neom development project.
• Neom is working with Volocopter on electric flying taxis for transportation.
• While promoting sustainability, Saudi Arabia has indicated that it will not phase out fossil fuels.
• This article is part of “Future of Sustainable Aerospace,” a series exploring green trends in the industry.

Of all the glitzy projects Saudi Arabia is embarking on, perhaps the most eccentric is Neom. The kingdom plans to spend more than half a trillion dollars to transform the desert into 10 futuristic regions, including a floating port city and a yachting hub.

The most famous of these is The Line, a city 0.20 km wide and 105 km long with a mirrored facade. Saudi Arabia hopes Neom will become home to nine million residents in a “vertical garden city” with basic necessities within a five-minute walk.

It says the high-speed train will transport citizens from one end to the other in 20 minutes. It plans to have no roads, traffic or pollution, with everything powered by renewable energy. And it aims to collect much more data on residents and services than other so-called smart cities do.

It plans to have four airports to connect it internationally. Only one, Neom Bay Airport, is currently operational. London Heathrow is its only destination outside the Middle East.

The route is managed by Saudia, the kingdom’s national airline, which on Monday announced the largest aviation order in Saudi Arabia’s history of 105 narrow-body Airbus aircraft.

The kingdom hopes more investment in aviation – including the launch of a new airline, Riyadh Air – will help promote it as a tourist destination.

Boom Supersonic, an American startup that is designing an airliner capable of crossing the Atlantic in 3.5 hours and using only sustainable aviation fuel, announced an investment from Neom last November. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Since 2021, Neom has worked in a joint venture with Volocopter, a German company designing electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, better known as eVTOL or flying taxis. Powered by batteries, they emit no carbon.

Neom, which has ordered 15 of its aircraft, invested $175 million in Volocopter’s Series E funding round in November 2022.

Borja Blond, CEO of the Neom-Volocopter joint venture, outlined his ambitions last November during a presentation at the Dubai Airshow, where Business Insider was present.

The plan is for Neom to operate three types of Volocopter eVTOLs: the VoloCity, the VoloRegion and the VoloDrone. Neom aims to have a fleet by 2025, although it is unclear how many aircraft this will involve.

“We really believe Volocopter is close to getting their aircraft certified,” Blond said.

Volocopter aims to be certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency in time for next summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, where it plans to operate its first service.

The drone, designed to carry up to 330 pounds, would be used for some cargo.

Since the VoloCity is designed to travel only 35 kilometers at a time, it would work like a flying taxi to take people around an area like The Line.

Neom plans to use the VoloRegion, with its top speed of 137 mph and range of 220 kilometers, to transport passengers between regions, although the presentation said it could also operate intraregionally.

“We need to think about connecting all of these regions seamlessly and being very well aligned with the vision that we have here,” Blond said. “In principle, we want to operate with 100% renewable energy.”

Neom plans to leave 95% of the region untouched, making it one of the largest nature reserves in the world. The line is designed with huge mirrors, in part to reflect the vast natural landscape.

Blond said Neom “doesn’t have the ability to build big runways, lots of airports,” adding that this makes eVTOLs a good solution for Neom’s transportation needs.

He said the goal was to create safe flight routes for VoloRegion aircraft over less populated areas.

“We want to provide a model to the rest of the world: this is what we have done. This is how we can progress towards the cities of the future,” Blond said.

Saudi Arabia will not phase out fossil fuels

But while the country favors renewable energy at home, it seeks to reap huge profits from fossil fuels abroad.

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan – which includes Neom and The Line – aims to make its economy less dependent on oil, but the kingdom recently suggested it would not cut its fossil fuel exports.

When asked at December’s COP28 summit whether he would agree to phase out fossil fuels, the country’s energy minister replied: “Absolutely not,” Bloomberg reported.

An investigation by Channel 4 and the Center for Climate Reporting published last November found that officials with Saudi Arabia’s Oil Sustainability Program acknowledged the country had a state-backed plan to target Africa and Asia with petroleum products.

Speaking about the dissonance between Saudi Arabia’s green energy projects and its status as a top oil exporter, Jim Krane, an energy geopolitics expert at Rice University, told Time last year : “They like to have it both ways.

“The Saudis’ ambition is to be the last man standing in the global oil market,” he added. “They want every last drop of oil extracted to come from a Saudi field.”