Dallas Forth Worth aims to launch air taxis ahead of 2026 World Cup

Paul Puopolo, Executive Vice President of Innovation, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport talks to Cities Today about the future of autonomous mobility, the need for city collaboration and plans to introduce airport taxis ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

What does innovation mean to you, and where does it fit within your airport and its relationship with the wider city region?

Innovation for us at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) airport is really about delivering new and useful solutions to the business – a lot of which is emerging technology. It’s hard to get away from the technology angle when it comes to innovation at the airport, and because we consider ourselves a major transportation hub a lot of the innovations that we’re working on have to do with mobility.

This includes everything from moving passengers and people – whether this be through autonomous vehicles or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, or autonomous tugs for cargo. And then if these are all electric, you have to consider the infrastructure needed to support them – whether that’s the charging capabilities, micro grid concerns, as well as 5G networks.

Airports can be cities, and at DFW we consider ourselves a city because of our size and the amount of facilities here. We have our own fire services and police, we have transportation, waste management and electricity issues and we have 200,000 people coming to the terminal every day – everything that a city has, we have.

And so, we believe we can collaborate with cities in the sense that if I think ‘hey, if I find a solution for smart lighting, or security cameras or digital twins, can I share this with cities?’ and vice versa. One specific example is autonomous vehicles (AVs).

I could have AVs all over my airport, but isn’t it better to have autonomous buses that can go from the airport to downtown? For this, you need the cities and the department of transportation to work with you to make that happen. Because I can do whatever I need to do within my geographical footprint, but once the bus leaves my property it needs to get downtown. This type of autonomous mobility is really a city/airport collaboration, and that applies to eVTOL aircraft as well.

Has DFW embarked on any autonomous mobility projects?

We tested an autonomous vehicle back in 2020 – a passenger shuttle – and then of course we had COVID, so it was put on hold. We also tested an autonomous cargo tug and are currently in the process of determining what’s the right use case to move forward with.

We have several projects related to autonomous vehicles going on right now. One is related to understanding the shuttle business and how to work on moving people from the terminals to rental car facilities or between terminals, and the other is how to move employees from employee parking to the airport and between terminals.

We have 65,000 employees at the airport – so we’re looking at how we make it better for them to commute to work, and whether autonomous buses or vehicles could be a solution. The challenge we have, to be honest, is the technology. We have a highway that comes right to our airport, but it’s pretty busy, so you have to be able to do 45-50 miles per hour and a lot of these autonomous buses aren’t going at that speed, they do 20-30 miles per hour around a campus or a downtown area.

So the technology has to advance, and we’re working through that trying to figure out what we need to do from an infrastructure standpoint to help support that and make it easier for the AV to get back and forth.

The airport is also working on eVTOL, and we have identified a location and are developing our strategy. We’ve signed an MoU with Overair to better understand operator needs because we want to be up and running with that capability by 2026 when we host the FIFA World Cup. We believe the certification should start coming along in 2024-25, so there could be flights in early 2026 – that’s our goal.

Where will these aircraft fly to and from and how many passengers could be on board?

The city of Arlington is already looking at a location where you can move people from the airport to downtown Arlington. I know that Dallas is looking at a new convention centre and some of the changes in the designs of the new centre would allow capability. A lot of it has to fall on local real estate, and we believe that if we start the programme we will find some regional airports that would be able to support eVTOL.

The early models will accommodate anything from a pilot and a passenger to a pilot and three passengers, but some of the bigger models we’ve seen can carry seven. So that’s why we would call this a shuttle service.

What conversations are you currently having with cities regarding this?

It’s at a very early stage. With AVs we have conversations with the North Texas Council of Governments and we work really closely with them and they’ve been instrumental in trying to make sure North Texas is friendly to AV developers and manufacturers. So if they are working with a company or they’re trying to do something we can have these conversations early, and they help coordinate the broader city integrations.

As far as eVTOL, that’s still really early. I think everyone is looking to see where the market goes. We as an airport feel like we’re leading in that discussion and we’re going to push that discussion. Hopefully we can figure it out for the airport and with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). If we can get the airspace worked out, then we think that the cities and communities will be onboard. But someone has to take the lead, and we believe the airport can get this conversation started.

Besides eVTOL, there’s a lot of work that’s been done in the community already around cargo – such as moving boxes and drones. This is part of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), and it seems to be moving a lot faster because it’s cargo so it’s an easier transition and an easier business model. You have the Walmart’s and the Amazon’s of the world already working on this. But when it comes to flying passengers, that’s a little bit of a tougher conversation.

How close is the relationship between the airport and neighbouring city authorities?

On the environmental, planning and construction side, we meet with the cities regularly because every time we do something from an environmental standpoint or related to noise, we talk to them about our plans. We are also owned by two cities – Fort Worth and Dallas – so we have monthly board meetings and talk about projects that are coming up and budgets, and then they approve what we’re doing.

We also work with the regional chambers of commerce, so we hear all the environmental and economic concerns and how the airport can better serve these Fortune 500 companies that might be coming into our area. We believe as an airport, we’re the gateway to the city. So we’re very concerned about how we support our communities and cities. If people’s first experience of Fort Worth and Dallas is hitting the airport, we want to make sure that it is a good reflection of the cities.

What will the airport be rolling out in terms of AV technology?

I think we will have some kind of shuttle service at the airport in the next 6-12 months. We’re working with [AV company] Aurora right now, they’re mapping our airport. There’s also other operators that are already in the market, like Waymo and Cruise, and we know they will be trying to get back and forth from our airport. So we definitely want to work with them to help them navigate our airports because it can be complicated in terms of kerbside management.

Besides this we’re also looking at robotics and autonomous mowers to do some of the work around the airport so we can take our resources and people and have them focus on other areas. People might not think that’s a very interesting use case, but if you think about it, the only way we can cut grass alongside the runway is during the day. And when that happens it affects operations, so if we can cut at night that changes everything. Ultimately, there’s a lot of applications for autonomous vehicles.

In his role as the Cities Today Institute’s new President for Airport Innovation, Paul Puopolo will be attending the fourth edition of the CTI Airport Leadership Forum in Miami, Florida on 29-30 May.