The Three Things That Make Land Vertiport-Ready

Not every property is suited for vertiport infrastructure - but more properties qualify than most people realize. When we evaluate potential sites across our growing network, we're looking at three essential factors that determine whether a location can support electric aviation infrastructure.

1. Community Support and Permitting

The first non-negotiable is ease of permitting. "We need communities that are open and friendly to it," Lisa Wright explains. "The great thing about rural communities is that much of their land is open and zoned in a way that we can work with."

Unlike dense urban areas where zoning battles can stretch for years, rural properties typically have clearer paths to approval. This doesn't mean the process is automatic, but it means we can move forward at the pace this industry demands.

2. Practical Use Cases Nearby

A vertiport needs a purpose. We look for proximity to practical applications: whether that's industrial operations, agricultural activities, medical facilities, or town centers. "The second is that there is some sort of use case nearby, whether it's industrial, agricultural, or town, medical as well," Lisa notes.

This is where rural markets excel. A single vertiport location might serve agricultural drone operations during planting season, emergency medical transport year-round, and last-mile logistics as e-commerce expands into these markets. The density of use cases in rural areas often exceeds what's available in cities focused purely on passenger transport.

3. Energy Access

The third factor is what Lisa calls "negotiable and non-negotiable." Energy infrastructure matters significantly. "If it's a 10 year lead to get energy to a site, we'll consider it as a backup site, but we're really first and foremost looking for sites where we can get power established quickly."

We're working with communities to provide battery backup systems that handle peak demand and create resilience for the broader area. As Lisa explained on Bloomberg TV, "We can use five acres of solar to power one of our smaller vertiports." For larger vertiplexes, we're connecting to the grid, particularly at smaller regional airports that already have the infrastructure in place.

Size and Scope

Our vertiports are surprisingly compact. "Ours are fairly small. They range from two acres to 12 acres; airports by contrast are hundreds to thousands of acres. The cost for the smallest one is about $350,000 and that has a slow charge. The vertiplexes, the larger ones, which will have pilot centers and training and storage, parking, etc, will cost closer to $3 million."

This isn't airport-scale infrastructure - it's closer to a helipad with specialized equipment. The beauty of this model is its flexibility. Vertiports can go on manufacturing sites, industrial parks, retail locations, logistics centers, and existing airports. If a property could accommodate a helipad, it can likely accommodate our infrastructure.

The Background That Shapes Our Approach

Coming from architecture and energy management rather than pure aviation gives us a different perspective. "As the name implies, we're very focused on the land side," Lisa explains. "We're really looking at what the failures of FBOs and airports have been, and what the difficulties for the customer side are on the land in those sorts of instances."

The goal is creating point-to-point travel that's "as seamless as getting an Uber" - small locations where people can get in and out quickly with the least amount of hassle and time delays.

We're building over 2,000 locations in North America. If you own commercial property in rural markets and think you might have a suitable site, reach out through our Work With Us page.

Visit landings.co to explore partnership opportunities.