South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) is reorganizing its urban air mobility (UAM) demonstration program to move beyond technology checks and toward real services in local regions. The new program is called the Neo K-UAM Grand Challenge (Neo GC). The ministry announced it on November 9 and held a briefing in Seoul on November 10 for local governments, companies and agencies interested in taking part. MOLIT said about 200 people were expected to attend.
Since 2023, the ministry has run the company-led K-UAM Grand Challenge to test the safety and operating technology UAM needs. Trials at Goheung in South Jeolla Province and Cheongna in Incheon covered aircraft operations, traffic management and vertiport operations.
Two tracks
Neo GC splits the work into two parts:
- Technology demonstration GC: Instead of companies testing individual technologies on their own, government and industry will work together to verify, as one integrated system, the technology and operating framework needed for commercial service. Real UAM aircraft will be used to test flight operations, traffic management and vertiport operations together.
- Regional commercialization GC: This new track has local governments and companies design UAM services that fit local needs, such as links between regions, airport connections and tourism. The services will then be tested in stages for real flights and day-to-day operation, with routes, landing sites and operating methods spelled out for each region.
The regional track will be run by consortia. Local governments will handle local demand studies, infrastructure and administrative groundwork. Companies and agencies will handle flight operations, traffic management and facility operations.
What’s next
MOLIT plans to officially launch Neo GC in December, alongside a “Partnering Day” to help local governments and companies find partners and form consortia. The ministry’s director general for mobility and automobiles said the program builds on the technology results gathered so far and is meant to prepare for actual regional service, and that he hopes the briefing and Partnering Day help turn trials into real businesses.
Source: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport press release (in Korean), distributed November 9, 2026, as reposted with the original file by ITS Korea. See also molit.go.kr.
Image: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport