Athena Browning at ZAG Daily
Oct 2, 2025
Twelve Mohawk Valley towns plan to host landing and charging sites for drones and eVTOLs, aiming to improve healthcare access and lay the groundwork for advanced air mobility.
Twelve communities in Upstate New York have announced plans to establish a network of vertiports, in what local officials say could be the largest planned system of its kind worldwide.
The Mohawk Valley Landings Network is being developed in partnership with infrastructure company Landings.co. The sites are intended to provide landing, charging, and storage facilities for drones and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
Landings CEO Lisa Wright told Zag Daily that the project could address long-standing transport challenges in rural areas where public transit is limited and geography makes ground travel difficult. She added smaller communities stand to benefit most from the technology, which she described as “transformative” compared to already well-served urban areas.
Several of the initial vertiports will be geared towards public services, such as improving access to hospitals, supporting air ambulance and firefighting operations and connecting residents with regional healthcare providers. Wright said the aim of cutting journey times is not only convenience but “saving lives.”
The network is also being positioned as an economic development initiative. Backers say the project could support advanced manufacturing, training, and research in the Mohawk Valley, helping to attract investment in a sector still at an early stage.
Landings is branding its model as the “Certified Vertiport Network” and has stressed the importance of building infrastructure ahead of demand, citing the difficulties the electric vehicle industry faced in scaling charging provision.
Each site is expected to use modular construction with locally sourced timber and integrate battery storage to reduce pressure on local grids. Wright said the design aims to “strengthen, not strain” community infrastructure.
Local officials and project leaders say the network could do for the region in the 21st century what the historic Erie Canal did two centuries ago and turn the Mohawk Valley into a gateway for a new era of transport.