Lilium hope to soar with launch of electric air taxis

By Maija Palmer, March 14th 2019

It is 2025 and midtown Manhattan is snarled with traffic. But the 19km journey to JFK airport — normally about an hour by road — takes just five minutes in an electric flying taxi and costs roughly $50. This is not from an episode of The Jetsons. It is the vision that Lilium, a Munich-based start-up, is working towards bringing to the public within six years. The company, founded in 2015 by four engineering students, is developing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) jets for a fleet of flying taxis that will be as easy to book as an Uber car. “We’re not intending to make it a luxury product that only the rich can afford. We want to make it a service that everyone can use,” says Remo Gerber, Lilium’s chief commercial officer. “It has to be affordable — it shouldn’t be just for the select few. We want it to be truly accessible.”

https://www.ft.com/content/e0b66e56-1364-11e9-a168-d45595ad076d


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