Independent evidence for an industry that does not have much yet.
evtol.nz was founded in 2026 on a simple observation: the aircraft makers, air navigation providers and regulators each own their part of advanced air mobility, but the evidence that councils, airports, developers, funders and health services need before any of them can act is nobody's job. We made it ours.
What we believe
- Plan before the aircraft arrive. Passenger eVTOL service in New Zealand is a 2029-or-later event. Siting, consenting, grid and route decisions are being made now, often on vendor slides.
- Neutral or nothing. We take no OEM money and keep a multi-manufacturer performance library, so a council can trust the comparison.
- Sourced or silent. Every figure links to the page it came from, with its date. Estimates are labelled.
- Planning-grade, honestly. We support decisions; we do not certify aircraft, design procedures or sign off noise compliance, and we say so.
Who is behind it
evtol.nz is led by a clinician-researcher and economist with published geospatial work on health-service access (the two-step floating catchment methods Atlas uses for demand and accessibility), experience in health economics, and a track record of building data products with AI agents. New Zealand-resident partners from aviation, planning and energy are joining through the pilot programme, and the company is incorporating in New Zealand. Write to hello@evtol.nz.
Why New Zealand
New Zealand has the regulatory sandbox (Part 107 certificates and permanent test airspace at Tāwhaki), the only measured electric-aircraft operating data in the Southern Hemisphere (Air New Zealand's ALIA trial), one of the world's densest helicopter fleets to electrify, and a government strategy with dated deliverables. It is the cheapest place in the world to prove planning tools that then serve Australia, Korea and the wider Asia-Pacific. See the rules tracker and insights for the evidence.
Partners and data providers
We build on open data from Toitū Te Whenua LINZ, Stats NZ and others, and reuse aeronautical information under agreement with Airways. We are members-in-waiting of the New Zealand aerospace and aviation industry associations and welcome conversations with councils, airports, developers, health agencies, lines companies, iwi organisations and investors.