Archer Aviation and AEG have announced plans to develop a vertiport at L.A. LIVE, AEG’s sports and entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles adjacent to Crypto.com Arena, with Archer as the district’s exclusive air taxi provider.
The site would be the first vertiport announced in downtown Los Angeles and adds to Archer’s planned network in the city, which already includes locations at SoFi Stadium, USC and Hollywood Burbank, with the company’s recently acquired Hawthorne Airport as its central operational hub. Archer is the official air taxi provider of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Team USA.
An initial feasibility study covering land use, airspace, power availability and community impact has been completed. The next phase, reviewing the operational approach and passenger experience, is underway. The vertiport will use BETA Technologies’ electric aviation chargers as part of the ACES consortium, which aims to bring interoperable charging to 250 aviation sites across the US by 2030.
“Working with AEG on an iconic project like this vertiport at L.A. LIVE gives us the opportunity to continue building the infrastructure needed for Southern California to lead in the next era of all-electric flight,” said Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer.
Nick Baker, president and COO of AEG Global Partnerships, said: “This is an ambitious project and exactly the kind of forward-thinking collaboration that blends infrastructure and technology in service of our fans, visitors and the broader community around major sports and live-entertainment events hosted at L.A. LIVE.”
Archer’s Midnight aircraft is designed for point-to-point urban air taxi travel with the goal of enabling journeys across Los Angeles in 10 to 20 minutes. The company displayed the aircraft in Team USA livery at L.A. LIVE on August 24-25.
