US electric aircraft maker Archer Aviation is in “deep” discussions with Saudi authorities and giga-projects to launch its air mobility services in the kingdom and across the Gulf Cooperation Council, Chief Executive Adam Goldstein said.
“We’re eyeing the entire GCC… I do think you will see aircraft here in Saudi soon,” Goldstein told Arabian Business on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh.
He said Archer has been “talking to Saudi for a long time” and is working with regulators to “set the framework, set the rules, and then ultimately create a pathway for us to launch.”
Founded in 2018 and based in San Jose, California, Archer is developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft designed for short urban and inter-city flights. The company went public in 2021 and has raised more than $1 billion to fund the development and certification of its production model, Midnight.
Goldstein said Saudi Arabia offers strong potential for expansion, citing large-scale developments such as NEOM and the Red Sea project. “Saudi would be a great market … as well as some of the big giga projects, Red Sea, NEOM and several others,” he said.
He confirmed that Archer is working with the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) to establish a regulatory pathway for eVTOL operations in the kingdom. “You’ll start to hear more on that,” he said.
When asked if Saudi could host operations within the next three to four years, Goldstein said the company aims to operate in Riyadh and major tourism hubs once frameworks are finalised.
Archer intends to use much of the existing air traffic infrastructure already used by helicopters. “The airspace exists today because there are helicopters today … We’re simply just taking a new product … and putting them into the existing airspace, existing infrastructure to help … as little change as possible,” Goldstein said.
While the company aims to make the service accessible to the wider public, Goldstein said early operations will likely start at the higher end of the rideshare market before costs fall through scale and utilisation. “The ambition is to actually have a product that’s a similar-priced product to what Ubers are today,” he said.
Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in new mobility technologies as part of its Vision 2030 strategy to diversify the economy and modernise transport systems. Goldstein said Archer’s plans for the kingdom form part of a wider push to expand air mobility networks across the GCC.
