SK Telecom is joining UAM Team Korea, an industry-academia research council targeted at accelerating and commercializing flying air taxis.

Commissioned by the Korean government, the group will look to advance urban air mobility (UAM) through collaborative research and development in all related areas including infrastructure, aircrafts, air traffic, demand and consumer reception.

SK Telecom will test and build communication network models for UAM Team Korea and will develop a UAM service platform to provide all related services — booking, transit and more — to integrate the transportation service seamlessly to consumers, allowing them to travel to a destination by using a variety of transportation methods like UAM, bus, train and personal mobility vehicles.

The group includes Korea Airports Corp., Hanwha Systems and the Korea Transport Institute. UAM is one moniker for flying cars, also known as air taxis, that refers to the process of providing air mobility services in urban areas using electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) transportation aircraft.

Korea Airports will build and operate UAM infrastructure including vertiports and manage traffic. Hanwha will develop the air taxis as well as solutions for UAM traffic control and navigation. Finally, the Korea Transport Institute will conduct studies to forecast demand and consumer reception for urban air mobility.

The four parties involved in the group will contribute to reducing social costs caused by traffic congestion in large cities and to encourage a transition to environmentally friendly transportation in Korea.