From Canary Wharf to Heathrow in 12 minutes: Where the UK’s 1st air taxis will fly
December 10, 2025
The UK’s first electric air-taxi routes have been formally unveiled, offering the clearest picture yet of where passengers will be able to fly when commercial services launch later this decade.
Vertical Aerospace, in partnership with Skyports Infrastructure and Bristow, have announced a network that places London at the centre of a fast, zero-emission travel system set to begin operations from Q1 2029.
Alongside the route announcements, Vertical Aerospace has today unveiled its final design for its eVTOL aircraft, formerly known as the VX4. Now, the aircraft is called Valo and is on display today at Canary Wharf for future flyers to see in all its glory.
London emerges as the hub of the UK’s first air-taxi routes
The partners’ initial network map centres around Canary Wharf as the primary London vertiport for early passenger services. From here, the first routes will connect to London’s two main airports – Gatwick and Heathrow – as well as the cities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The plans for the air taxi network out of London are:
- Canary Wharf to London Heathrow
- Canary Wharf to London Gatwick
- Canary Wharf to Cambridge
- Canary Wharf to Oxford and Bicester
The design focuses on corridors where travellers lose the most time to congestion. A typical journey from Canary Wharf to Heathrow currently takes 60–90 minutes by car or rail, yet the new air-taxi route is projected to take just 12 minutes in the air.
However, the partners are keen to stress that this is just the beginning, and hopes are high that this small initial network will ultimately scale into a nationwide air taxi rollout.
“Our Skyports London Heliport and Bicester skyport, combined with our global infrastructure expertise, make us ideally positioned to support early eVTOL services in the UK,” says Duncan Walker, CEO of Skyports Infrastructure. “With
Bristow’s operational strength, we can accelerate plans for electric air taxi routes across the region, with the plan to create a UK-wide network.”
When commercial eVTOL flights begin, passengers should see genuine time savings, quieter aircraft and direct links between major transport nodes and business districts. Early services are likely to be premium-priced, though scaling will bring costs down as infrastructure and fleets expand.
When can passengers fly on Vertical’s Valo air taxi?
Vertical and its partners are aiming for regulatory approval in 2028, followed by commercial launch in the first quarter of 2029, subject to certification of aircraft and vertiports. The collaboration brings together:
- Vertical Aerospace, providing the aircraft and technical ecosystem
- Skyports Infrastructure, delivering the vertiports, including London Heliport and Bicester
- Bristow, operating the routes under its UK AOC and drawing on more than 75 years of specialist aviation experience
The companies describe the plan as the blueprint for a scalable national air-mobility network, designed to move beyond trials and into everyday, ticketed operations.
Meet Valo, the electric aircraft set to carry UK air-taxi passengers
Vertical’s new eVTOL, Valo, will be the aircraft powering the launch network, offering a cleaner and faster alternative for short regional hops. The design is a significant step forward from the company’s earlier VX4 prototype, with a more aerodynamic airframe, upgraded materials and a fully certifiable architecture shaped by thousands of hours of test data and airline feedback.
Valo will initially seat four passengers in a premium cabin with panoramic windows and generous personal space, with the flexibility to expand to six seats in later variants. The aircraft also features what Vertical describes as the largest luggage capacity in its class, with space for six cabin bags and six checked bags, making it well-suited to airport transfers where travellers typically carry more baggage than on city shuttles
In service, Valo is designed to fly up to 100 miles at speeds of up to 150 mph, producing zero operating emissions. The aircraft targets airliner-level safety certification in 2028, through the CAA and EASA, ahead of entering commercial service on the UK’s first air-taxi routes the following year
Bristow has already pre-ordered up to 50 Valo aircraft, with options for an additional 50, giving the partners the fleet depth required to scale quickly. Vertical expects to produce 175 aircraft per year by 2030, rising to more than 225 annually by the end of that year.
