Saudi Arabia Charts Course for Autonomous Air Mobility

SkyGrid, a Boeing company, has announced the activation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Boeing Saudi Arabia and the General Authority of Civil Aviation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (GACA) through the launch of an AAM Airspace and Operational Feasibility Analysis. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is also participating in the initiative, which will assess the operational and regulatory viability of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) in Saudi Arabia, supporting the implementation of the GACA AAM Roadmap.

The analysis will evaluate AAM routes, cooperative airspace areas, communications, navigation and surveillance infrastructure, and associated vertiports and airports. It will address operations under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), and Automated Flight Rules (AFR) — a framework for fully autonomous flight modelled on Boeing's Concept of Operations for Automated Flight Rules.

The parties will conduct a Gap Analysis to identify required air, ground, and ATM technology and infrastructure needed to support urban air mobility and autonomous aircraft operations, leading to an Infrastructure and Technology Roadmap for scaling from VFR and IFR to AFR operations. The analysis will also define stakeholder roles and propose regulatory changes to integrate AAM systems into existing ATM frameworks.

SkyGrid will contribute expertise in digital operations and AAM traffic management, including traffic surveillance, micro-weather intelligence, vertiport resource management, and GNSS spoofing detection. KAUST will provide research and technical expertise across engineering, data science, and systems research.

The project will deliver a baseline assessment and gap analysis to support the advancement of the GACA AAM Roadmap.