Bloomberg Businessweek – "Redefining Advanced Air Mobility"

Hosts: Carol Massar & Tim Stenovec
Date: November 12, 2025
Guest: Lisa Wright (Founder & CEO, Landings)

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the rapidly evolving world of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), spotlighting electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (EVTOLs) and the critical infrastructure needed to enable their practical use. Lisa Wright, founder and CEO of Landings, shares insights on how her company is developing a network of "vertiports" — the landing, charging, and operations sites that will support future air mobility. The discussion explores the challenges of infrastructure development, power requirements, regulatory realities, and market adoption, comparing the AAM sector with the evolution of the electric vehicle (EV) industry.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

State of the EVTOL Industry

• Market Snapshot:
  • Archer Aviation's recent stock drop & plans to acquire Hawthorne Airport.
    • "[Archer] said they were buying Hawthorne Airport in Los Angeles, which is super interesting... there's a lot going on in the EVTOL space." (Tim Stenovec, 01:53)
• Test Flights and Commercial Readiness:
  • EVTOLs have begun test flights with pilots; China and Dubai are leading in deployment.
  • "There have been test flights with pilots... in China, there's about, I think, 60 already in the air." (Lisa Wright, 03:00)

Infrastructure Needs and Challenges

• Comparison with EV Cars:

  • Infrastructure is the bottleneck, just as with ground EVs.
  • "You can charge your EV at home, you cannot charge your EVTOL at home." (Lisa Wright, 03:58)

• Scale & Distribution:

  • The promise of EVTOLs is point-to-point travel, necessitating thousands of sites, not just one or two.
  • Focus for Landings is on rural sites first, where land is more available and affordable.

• Flexibility of Vertiport Placement:

  • "We can put them on manufacturing sites... industrial sites, retail locations... logistics centers. They can go on just about any type of real estate that we want where a helipad could go." (Lisa Wright, 04:24)

Use Cases and Adoption Strategy

• Initial Customers:
  • Emphasis on logistics, freight, and emergency services rather than passenger travel at the outset.
  • "We're looking at it first as a logistics and freight issue... [with] heavy drones... smaller aircraft... carry emergency service personnel." (Lisa Wright, 05:12)
• Infrastructure Design:
  • Ports are mainly for charging; landing can occur anywhere a helicopter could land, but charging is only at equipped sites.
  • "If the helipad doesn't have the charging equipment, you wouldn't be able to charge there." (Lisa Wright, 05:42)

Financial & Operational Model

• Cost to Build:
  • Mini-ports: $350,000 (slow charging, minimal facilities, 2 acres)
  • Verteplexes: Up to $3 million (fast charging, training, storage, ~12 acres)
• Business Approach:
  • Similar to American Tower's model with cell towers: secure land options nationwide in advance, asset-light strategy, revenue sharing with landowners.
  • "We're essentially getting options on different pieces of property... we will get the capital to build the vertiports and the energy network and then we're going to share the revenue with the landowner." (Lisa Wright, 06:42)

Power and Sustainability

• Biggest Challenge: Power Supply
  • "Power is going to be the biggest difficulty, similar to data centers. However, we don't require as much energy as a data center. We can use five acres of solar to power one of our vertiports." (Lisa Wright, 07:32)
• Power Solutions:
  • Solar is the main approach; in some places, integration with the grid and battery backup for resilience.
  • "Many of them will be co-located [with solar], trying to connect to the grid in some smaller airports... battery backup system that becomes resiliency for the community." (Lisa Wright, 08:11)

Partnerships, Funding, and Outlook

• Industry Collaborations:
  • Working with major players: Archer, Beta, Joby, Electra, Pivotal, Jetson.
  • "I'm working with all EVTOL companies... and the sport craft companies are Pivotal and Jetson." (Lisa Wright, 08:35)
• Funding Status:
  • Still raising capital for the expansion.
  • "Working on it." (Lisa Wright, 08:50, regarding funding closure)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Commercial Viability:

  • "Whether I pay or not, I'd like to be a customer. Within a year, I believe." (Lisa Wright, 02:50)
  • "I didn't say in the US." (Lisa Wright, clarifying Middle East/China as ahead, 02:56)

• Infrastructure Bottleneck Analogy:

  • "The bottleneck in getting EVs on the ground was actually not having enough charging for them. And you can charge your EV at home, you cannot charge your EVTOL at home." (Lisa Wright, 03:58)

• Vision for Rollout:

  • "We're approaching this in the way that American tower approached it... [by] getting options on the land... asset-light." (Lisa Wright, 06:32)

• On Power Requirements:

  • "We can use five acres of solar to power one of our vertiports." (Lisa Wright, 07:32)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:38–02:08: Archer Aviation news and market context
• 02:08–03:10: Lisa Wright introduction; test flights, global landscape
• 03:10–03:58: Parallels between EVs and EVTOLs; infrastructure bottlenecks
• 04:18–05:12: Vertiport design and rural focus
• 05:12–05:42: Use cases: logistics, emergency, freight
• 05:42–06:14: Vertiport costs and size
• 06:14–07:19: Asset-light rollout, American Tower analogy
• 07:19–08:11: Power sourcing, solar approach
• 08:11–08:35: Partnering with EVTOL manufacturers
• 08:49–08:51: Fundraising status

Tone & Style Notes

The conversation balances technical detail and big-picture vision, with Lisa Wright providing clear, confident, and sometimes lighthearted insights ("I like to call myself a land woman"). The hosts maintain a curious, slightly skeptical but optimistic tone, pressing for explanations on timeline, practicality, and industry hurdles.

In summary:
This episode provides a candid look at what it will take for advanced air mobility to succeed in the U.S. and abroad, focusing less on "flying cars" and more on the essential infrastructure and realistic early use cases that will define the market's first phase. Lisa Wright offers a strategic perspective on how rural-centric infrastructure, solar integrations, and asset-light business models could bring the EVTOL revolution closer to reality.