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Dubai Certifies The World’s First Purpose-Built Air Taxi Vertiport

The four-story VDX hub will handle up to 170,000 passengers a year, with three more vertiports already under development across the city.

Published

2 days ago

July 7, 2026

Dana Saadeh

dubai certifies the world's first purpose-built air taxi vertiport

Dubai’s air taxi ambitions have cleared their most consequential hurdle yet: somewhere to land. The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has certified VDX, a facility developed by Skyports Infrastructure, as the world’s first purpose-built commercial vertiport for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, opening the way for commercial air taxi services to begin in the emirate.

Officially registered as VDX under the GCAA certification process, the four-story facility spans approximately 3,100 square meters and houses two dedicated take-off and landing areas, rapid charging infrastructure for electric aircraft, and high throughput passenger facilities. Once commercial operations commence, it can accommodate up to 170,000 passengers annually.

dubai uae vertiport skyport vdx certification

VDX will serve as the first and primary hub in Dubai’s planned air taxi network, which Skyports is developing in collaboration with the city’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). Three additional vertiports are currently under development.

Certification is the unglamorous half of the flying-taxi story, and arguably the harder one. The GCAA’s assessment covered the vertiport’s infrastructure, physical characteristics, operational procedures, safety management arrangements, emergency preparedness and regulatory compliance — a checklist that, until now, no purpose-built commercial vertiport anywhere had completed.

“The certification of the world’s first purpose-built commercial vertiport is a historic achievement for the UAE and a defining moment for the future of aviation,” said Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, Director-General of the GCAA. “The UAE is not only preparing for the future of aviation; it is actively shaping it and establishing new international benchmarks for Advanced Air Mobility”.

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Skyports Infrastructure CEO Duncan Walker called the milestone proof “that the infrastructure, operational standards and regulatory frameworks required for commercial eVTOL services are now a reality,” adding that construction of the wider network is progressing at pace.

The certification supports the “We the UAE 2031” vision and the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, positioning the emirate’s air taxi network as part of a broader push toward economic diversification and sustainable mobility.

Related Topics:Aviation Dubai eVTOL RTA United Arab Emirates

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Meta’s New AI Tool Builds Images From Public Instagram Photos

Muse Image lets anyone generate AI visuals from your public posts, unless you find the opt-out that’s buried in your account settings.

Published

7 hours ago

July 9, 2026

Nour Nasir

Meta

Meta has a new AI image generator, and it comes with a feature that has privacy advocates alarmed. Muse Image, launched Tuesday by the company’s Superintelligence Labs division, lets users generate AI images by @ mentioning any public Instagram account — pulling that person’s photos into the creation without their knowledge.

The tool is available through the Meta AI app, WhatsApp, and Instagram Stories. Meta says it “uses advanced reasoning to understand complex prompts, seamlessly blending multiple photos into high-quality creations you can download and share anywhere”. The tagging is the flashpoint: “Tagging a username lets Meta AI use public photos to build a visual that’s ready to post,” the company says. Every public Instagram profile can be used unless its owner has explicitly opted out.

That default has drawn sharp criticism. Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy nonprofit, called the feature “an egregious invasion of user privacy”. “Meta has once again chosen the creepiest possible path,” said J.B. Branch, the group’s director of federal AI governance and technology policy. “People should not wake up to discover their face has become raw material for someone else’s AI experiment”. “Instead of asking for meaningful consent, Meta quietly defaults users into the system and buries the opt-out in account settings,” Branch added. “It’s a playbook we’ve come to expect from a company with a long history of putting its business interests ahead of the public”.

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Despite the concerns, it’s worth noting that private accounts are already protected. Muse Image requires access to public photos, and anyone trying to tag a private profile will be told the account can’t be used. Public accounts, on the other hand, must opt out manually. To do that, users will need to go to their profile, tap the menu in the top-right corner, then Sharing and Reuse. Under “Allow people to reuse your content on Instagram and with AI features at Meta,” you’ll find separate toggles for Posts and Reels — switch both off to keep your images and videos out of other people’s AI creations.