Volocopter expects to be flying in “two or three years”

Volocopter co-founder and CIO Alex Zosel has predicted that its VTOL-hailing service could be up and running as soon as 2020.

Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in Berlin, Zosel said: “We think that in two or three years we’ll have the first commercial applications somewhere in the world with our service.”

The start-up electric multicopter is conducting flight tests in Dubai as part of a five-year programme with the city’s road and transit authority. The German Aviation Authority granted Volocopter a provisional licence and it received backing from venture capital firm btov last month.

UberAir also plans to be operating its air taxi service in Los Angeles, Fort Worth and Dubai by 2020. The service will be cheap, costing as much as current Uber X rates at launch.