[Exclusive] Hanhwa eyes flying car booking service with No.1 local ride-hailing app

Hanwha Systems is seeking partnership deals with ride-hailing apps, including the industry’s biggest Kakao T, to include flying taxis on the platforms, the company said Thursday.

Hanwha Systems, a defense business unit of South Korea Hanwha Group, is racing to debut a flying car by 2024 and Kakao T is one of multiple ground mobility platforms being considered as a reservation service partner.

Kakao T, operated by Kakao Mobility, is South Korea’s most popular taxi hailing platform with some 28 million users.

“We are exploring possibilities with various platforms including Kakao,” a Hanwha Systems official said.

“The idea is to allow users to reserve multiple transportation services via one app, just like users can reserve KTX train tickets via Kakao T, which is originally a taxi-hailing app,” another official said.

Details are sketchy as to how this reservation system would run, including who -- Hanhwa or the platform partner -- will be chiefly responsible for its operation.

At the Seoul Smart Mobility Expo that opened Thursday in Mapo-gu, western Seoul, Hanwha Systems offered a glimpse into the urban air mobility system it is developing -- from the “vertiport” takeoff and landing pad to the aircraft itself.

The firm has teamed up with UK-based vertiport specialist Skyport for the development of its infrastructure in South Korea. It has also partnered with US-based Overair to develop the “Butterfly” aerial car model. The firm displayed a mock-up of Butterfly at the expo.

Its demonstration of the flying car reservation system, on display at the expo, is based on the user interface of Kakao Map.

“Hanwha Systems’ aerial taxi project is proceeding as scheduled for a 2025 trial operation,” CEO Kim Yeon-chul said.

If Hanwha teams up with Kakao, it would prompt Hyundai Motor, a local rival in the urban air mobility field, to pursue a similar partnership deal of its own, said Shin Yoon-chul, an analyst at Seoul-based investment bank Hi Investment & Securities. The South Korean automaker aims to launch flying cars for logistics business in 2026 and for taxi services in 2028.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)