The conversation around vertiports is fundamentally changing, according to Lisa Wright, founder of Landings, a company building North America's first comprehensive network of vertiport landing and charging infrastructure. Six months ago, commercial real estate owners arrived with basic questions about what vertiports were. Now, property owners come with foundational understanding and ask specific questions about infrastructure feasibility and partnership structures. This shift signals that the vertiport category is moving past conceptual discussion toward operational planning.
Wright has observed this market awareness shift firsthand through hundreds of property owner conversations. 'I still do a slight bit of education at the beginning of conversations, but I don't have to explain the industry potential anymore,' she said. 'Property owners understand Joby's test flights happened. They understand there are multiple aircraft manufacturers. They understand that vertiports are coming.' The awareness shift reflects converging market signals, including Joby's publicized test flights, Walmart's drone delivery expansion into rural Texas and Georgia, and traditional aviation infrastructure players announcing vertiport plans.
Site selection is evolving beyond basic feasibility. Earlier conversations focused on whether properties could technically support vertiports. Current conversations focus on how to structure partnerships, what infrastructure requirements look like, and how multimodal revenue streams affect project economics. Landings' feasibility platform has processed hundreds of property submissions, revealing patterns in what makes sites viable. Distributed energy solutions combining solar generation and battery storage opened doors that grid-dependent analysis initially closed. Properties once dismissed as infeasible are now viable when energy infrastructure planning accounts for multimodal charging serving aircraft, drones, school buses, and municipal fleets simultaneously. 'What surprised us is how many sites became viable once we solved for the energy side,' Wright explained.
Understanding infrastructure size changes market perception. A small upstate New York airport spans 420 acres with a 4,000-foot runway. Long Island Airport requires 1,200 acres. The largest proposed vertiport in Landings' network runs 20 acres maximum. 'We're trying to keep them small because we want to deploy so many of them,' Wright noted. 'A distributed network of smaller sites versus a regional airport model fundamentally changes which communities can access aviation infrastructure.' This size efficiency matters for commercial real estate owners evaluating partnership opportunities, as property owners holding marginal land can now monetize assets through vertiport infrastructure.
Market timing is critical. Based on industry conversations, Joby appears to be progressing ahead of other manufacturers toward FAA certification, potentially within the next six months. Other manufacturers including Archer are targeting early 2027, while some competitors have extended timelines toward 2028. Actual certification timelines will depend on FAA processes, but the key takeaway for property owners is that aircraft manufacturers are advancing toward certification. Properties that develop infrastructure now position for operational readiness when certification arrives, while those waiting face 8-12 months of infrastructure development. 'The window for first-mover positioning is measured in months,' Wright said.
The real inflection point is here. Property owners moving from 'what is this?' to 'how do I participate?' signals category maturation. The industry is moving from the education phase to deployment phase, creating urgency for property owners and infrastructure developers. For more information, Landings provides resources for property owners at landings.co/real-estate.
