Can flying taxis beat LA traffic? US city to develop air taxi vertiport ahead of 2028 Olympics

It doesn’t quite feel like two years have passed since the Paris Olympics drew to a close. But with Los Angeles now gearing up to welcome the world in 2028, fans planning a trip to the next Games just might have a very LA way of avoiding one of the city’s most notorious problems: traffic – and lots of it.

The Californian city is set to develop its first “vertiport”, which is a dedicated takeoff and landing site for electric air taxis. Spearheaded by sports entertainment giant AEG and Archer Aviation, the site will be hosted in L.A. Live, a four-million-square-foot sports and entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles.

And for visitors faced with navigating one of the world’s busiest cities during one of the world’s biggest sporting events, the appeal is obvious: fly over the traffic rather than… just sit in it.

Archer’s Midnight aircraft has a fully-electric system and can seat up to four passengers. With a top speed of 241.4 kilometres/hour, it also gets them where they need to go quicker than driving.

The company says an air taxi flight from Hawthorne Airport to Orange County, famed for cruises out of Newport Harbor for dolphin and whale watching, takes around 12 minutes. In comparison, it would take about a 56-minute car ride.

Meanwhile, a flight from Hollywood Burbank Airport to Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium takes 14 minutes, compared to an almost hour-long journey on wheels.

This will be especially useful come 2028. In the run up to the LA Games, SoFi has now been dubbed “2028 Stadium”, and is set to become the largest swimming venue in Olympic history. It will also co-host the Olympics opening ceremony, alongside the LA Memorial Coliseum as well as host the Paralympics opening ceremony.

Last year, Archer Aviation was handpicked as the Official Air Taxi Provider of the LA28 Games and Team USA. To celebrate this, Archer unveiled its Team USA livery with a display of its Midnight aircraft at L.A Live.