News

Saudi Arabia’s First Electric Air Taxi Completes Test Flight

The week-long program was a collaboration between NEOM representatives, Volocopter, and Saudi aviation authorities.

Published

2 years ago

June 22, 2023

saudi arabia's first electric air taxi completes test flight

Representatives from NEOM — the massive Saudi Arabian smart city development project — and urban air mobility company Volocopter have announced the successful completion of a test flight by an eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) air taxi service.

The week-long test flight program was the first of its kind to receive the go-ahead from Saudi officials, and was conducted in collaboration with the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).

NEOM and Volocopter aim to implement and scale a complete electric UAM ecosystem in the upcoming smart city development as part of their shared vision for a clean, sustainable future.

volocopter evtol in saudi arabia neom

NEOM CEO, Nadhmi Al-Nasr, said: “The successful test flight of a Volocopter eVTOL is […] another milestone towards creating NEOM’s innovative, sustainable, multimodal transportation system. Driving the development of smart, sustainable, and safe mobility systems will improve livability and connectivity in cities worldwide and reduce carbon emissions, creating a cleaner future for all”.

Meanwhile, Volocopter Chief Commercial, Christian Bauer, was equally enthusiastic about the results of the test flight: “It is beyond exciting to see our work from the past 18 months come to fruition. As the first eVTOL aircraft to ever test in Saudi Arabia, we are proud to have laid the groundwork for our future collaboration here in NEOM”.

Also Read: Dubai Hospital Delivery Drone Completes Successful First Trial

Volocopter’s eVTOLs will be powered by 100% renewable energy from solar and wind sources. The electric craft will also be multi-use, with plans to deploy them as taxis, emergency response vehicles, and more. The electric helicopters should be easily adaptable, cheaper to run than conventional models, and a good deal quieter. Meanwhile, smart and autonomous capabilities ensure high levels of safety in confined cityscapes.

The air taxi test flight announcement comes after NEOM’s EUR 175 million investment into Volocopter, which recently confirmed that its production plant in Bruchsal, Germany, now had the capacity to build over 50 helicopters per year.

Related Topics:Air Taxi eVTOL NEOM Saudi Arabia

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Cemplicity Is Bringing Real-Time Patient Insights To The UAE

The advanced healthcare platform offers tools for chronic disease management and improved patient experiences.

Published

7 hours ago

January 13, 2025

Nour Nasir

Cemplicity

Cemplicity — a leading health-tech company founded in 2013 — has launched its advanced platform in the UAE, aiming to revolutionize patient care and streamline healthcare operations to improve clinical outcomes.

Designed to analyze patient-reported data in real-time, the platform incorporates Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) and Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) to collect and analyze patient feedback. By transforming the data into actionable insights, healthcare providers will be better equipped to improve quality of care and increase efficiency.

Cemplicity’s technology can even tackle chronic conditions like diabetes, which affects 12.3% of the UAE population. By enabling regular symptom tracking and side-effect monitoring (even when patients are at home) the platform ensures proactive care management, and can also optimize early detection and screening of cancers.

Blaik Wilson, Cemplicity’s CEO, shared: “We are excited to bring Cemplicity to the UAE, a nation committed to healthcare excellence. With the private healthcare sector evolving at an impressive pace, partnering with such forward-thinking providers enables us to transform patient feedback into meaningful insights that enhance patient experiences and improve outcomes”.

Wilson added: “Globally, healthcare produces 30% of the world’s data volume. Aggregating and anonymizing patient-reported data not only uncovers trends and evaluates treatment outcomes but also advances the UAE’s broader ambition to lead in medical research and innovation”.

Also Read: Malak Trabelsi Loeb On Leadership And QIS 2025

With a presence in nine countries and partnerships with major healthcare providers like the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), Cemplicity has already redefined how hospitals and clinics leverage patient feedback. Its tools, known for achieving high survey response rates, help link patient experiences to organizational KPIs and Net Promoter Scores (NPS), enabling measurable improvements in operations, and clinical outcomes, while fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

For the UAE market, the platform has been specially adapted to local needs, offering multilingual support (including Arabic) and seamless integration with tools such as WhatsApp and various hospital management systems.