Brazil Tests Aerial Taxis As São Paulo, Rio Plan First Vertiports

Key Points

1. São Paulo and Rio plan Brazil’s first vertiports, built inside existing urban airports.
2. The hardest work is regulation and safety, not the landing pads—hence an ANAC sandbox.
3. Brazil’s eVTOL push is real, but power, airspace, and certification timelines will decide if it scales.

Vertiports—compact terminals for electric aircraft that take off and land vertically—are moving from concept to concrete in Brazil’s two biggest cities.

São Paulo’s Campo de Marte and Rio de Janeiro’s Jacarepaguá airports are slated to host the country’s first hubs for eVTOL air taxis, under a partnership between airport operator PAX Aeroportos and UrbanV, an Italian company focused on building vertiport networks.

The pitch is simple: turn short, high-value trips into fast aerial hops that bypass gridlocked roads. In São Paulo, planners describe Campo de Marte as a node connecting destinations such as the main international airports, the Faria Lima business district, Alphaville, Campinas, and Santos.

In Rio, Jacarepaguá is being positioned as a West Zone gateway, with possible links to the South Zone, Niterói, and the city’s major airports. But the real story is governance.

Brazil shapes future urban flight standards

The partners want an ANAC-linked regulatory sandbox at Campo de Marte to define what “normal operations” should mean for this new category—passenger processing, perimeter security, firefighting standards, noise management, approach paths, and maintenance routines.

The program has been described as a 24-month effort, signaling that officials are treating this as an aviation system, not a gadget. Brazil’s timing matters because it is not just hosting foreign technology.

Eve, controlled by Embraer, says it has nearly 3,000 preorders from 28 customers in nine countries, while regulators have signaled that certification is more realistically a 2027 milestone than a near-term launch.

Even then, commercialization depends on reliable charging power, integration into air traffic management, and clear rules for where and how these aircraft can fly.

The companies have promoted the plans through their own channels, raising expectations before approvals are finalized. For residents and business travelers, the promise is speed.

For the country, the bigger prize is setting credible standards early—exportable rules, not hype—so advanced air mobility grows under predictable oversight rather than improvisation.

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