The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of Industry and Trade said in September 2019 that they are going to establish and to operate ‘a Joint Government-Private Development Strategy Consultative Body’ for developing the future model of ‘Private Air Vehicle’ and for revitalizing the transportation industry, a new concept of air transport. The consultative body will promote joint efforts by industry experts, scholars and researchers in various fields, including aviation, automotive, battery, electric and electronic, transportation services, maintenance and infrastructure, while also promoting review of "personal aviation (PAV)" services such as development of core technologies and international joint development support for industrial ecosystems, support for improvement of performance and quality, and cooperation among civil forces.
Hyundai Motor Co., Ltd. unveiled the concept model ‘S-A1’ of the ‘Private Air Vehicle (PAV)’ at the ‘CES 2020 Consumer Electronics Show 2020’ held on January 7, 2020, along with the unveiling of Hyundai Motor's ‘UAM: Urban Air Mobility’ system. Using ‘Private Air Mobility (UAM)’, ‘Private Airplane Mobility (PAV)’ aims to establish a future mobility ecosystem that allows users to move freely from ground-to-ground traffic jams within urban centers and directly to major facilities in urban areas after landing on the basis of ‘Mobility Transfer Point (HUB)’. If we look at the strategies announced by the government (the Ministry of Land, Transport, Trade, Industry and Energy) and companies (the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) and Hyundai Motor (Hyundai Motor), we will expect that the future transportation in the city will be a "self-driving car" on the ground and a "personal airplane (PAV) flying in the air within the next 10 years.
However, the implementation of related technologies, such as aviation, electronics, electricity, communications, maintenance, and other facilities such as transit points (HUB) will be critical in that the ‘UAM’ system is based on ‘Personal Air Mobility’ (PAV), but the top priority should be to review how to ensure that these Private Flights (PAVs) can move freely. In the case of self-driving cars, they can move on existing roads, but the use of existing roads is difficult in that ‘PAVs’ fly in the air, not on the ground. If this is not resolved in advance, the commercialization of the ‘urban air mobility’ system will be difficult in the future.
Therefore, this paper focuses on the legal issues concerning the operation of ‘Private Air Vehicle (PAV)’ in city areas through a review of the facilities to be built for the commercialization of ‘Private Air Mobility(UAM)’ system and its moving space in urban areas, and intends to conduct a legal review of the improvement measures.