ePlane Company Signs MoU with Noida International Airport to Build eVTOL Infrastructure and Operations Framework
Why It MattersThe agreement signals Indian airports beginning to allocate physical space and regulatory coordination toward advanced air mobility ahead of any eVTOL entering commercial service.
Indian electric aircraft developer The ePlane Company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Yamuna International Airport Pvt Ltd (YIAPL), the concessionaire for Noida International Airport, to jointly develop the ground infrastructure and operational framework for deploying its e200X electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Under the agreement, YIAPL will allocate airport space for proof-of-concept trials, vertiports and charging stations and will adapt its operating procedures to accommodate eVTOL services, while The ePlane Company pursues clearances from India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security alongside prototyping and flight testing.
The two parties will jointly engage regulators, Air Traffic Control and state governments to develop safety frameworks, Vertiport Management Systems and AI-assisted fleet scheduling integrated with smart-city systems, targeting airport-to-airport transit, intra-city travel and emergency air ambulance services across the Delhi-NCR region. Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy, founder and director of Ubifly Technologies (The ePlane Company), said deploying electric air taxis requires parallel development of ground infrastructure, regulatory frameworks and operational procedures, adding that drone trials would validate operational models before piloted e200X flights begin. Daniel Bircher, chairman of Noida International Airport, said integrating advanced air mobility into the airport's framework reflects its longer-term vision for multi-modal connectivity in the region.
The MoU follows the recent public unveiling of the full-scale e200X PT-01 prototype, with ground testing currently under way. Founded in 2019 and incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras Incubation Cell, The ePlane Company said it is the first private aerospace entity in India to receive a formal Design Organisation Approval from the DGCA for electric aircraft, and that the e200X is the first eVTOL accepted into the regulator's type-certification pipeline.
