How to become an air taxi pilot?
Want to become an “air taxi pilot”? Qazinform News Agency asked the developers of Kazakhstan’s future air taxi service what it will take to get behind the controls of an eVTOL aircraft.
According to Daniyar Uteulin, Head of Investor Relations at Alatau Advance Air Group Ltd., future eVTOL pilots will not start from scratch. Instead, manufacturers currently retrain already certified aviation professionals.
“Each air taxi manufacturer has its own training system, including simulators and instructor pilots,” Uteulin explained. “Today, they take licensed airplane or helicopter pilots and provide additional training for a specific eVTOL model.”
This means aspiring air taxi pilots will first need to obtain a conventional commercial pilot license before completing a manufacturer-specific conversion course. The additional qualification is added to their existing international certification and is tied to a particular aircraft type rather than serving as a universal eVTOL license.
Although many next-generation air taxis are being designed with increasing levels of automation, Kazakhstan’s first commercial operations are expected to rely on human pilots. The company says passenger flights will be conducted only with piloted aircraft, while the unmanned vehicle brought to Astana was used solely for demonstration purposes and to comply with aviation safety requirements.
Uteulin also noted that Kazakhstan is currently developing the necessary secondary regulations for advanced air mobility. The company expects the legal framework to be in place before the planned launch of commercial air taxi services at the end of 2028 or the beginning of 2029.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that Astana hosted its first-ever demonstration flight of an electric air taxi.
