A finished vertiport is not a service

The FAA's Part 194 FAQ says a vertiport is a piece of land, or a structure, used for powered-lift landings and takeoffs. It compares one to a heliport designed for powered-lift aircraft. A building that matches that description can exist before any passenger service does.

Skyports and Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority said on April 16, 2026 that the vertiport by Dubai International Airport had reached technical completion and was ready to handle eVTOL aircraft. Skyports described it as four floors and 3,100 square metres, with two take-off and landing areas, and a design capacity of up to 170,000 passengers and 42,000 aircraft movements a year. Those figures are design capacity. Skyports said commercial flights had not started. The announcement does not give a passenger-service date. This site's status for that building is "built, service not started," not "operating."

The same announcement puts the other Dubai nodes at earlier stages. Dubai Marina was under construction, with no opening date. Dubai Mall and Palm Jumeirah were listed as places where construction was set to begin in the coming months. Those starts are plans.

A named city is not a vertiport either. Archer said Midnight is planned to enter service in Abu Dhabi with Abu Dhabi Aviation, and gave no date and no named vertiport. EHang said operator certificates let people buy tickets for sites in Guangzhou and Hefei, and did not publish a timetable in that release. XPulse says an Aridge centre in Chengdu is to be built by the end of 2026 and then run on trial. That end-2026 date is a target.

The vertiports page keeps those distinctions. A target column is labelled as a target even when the honest entry is that no date was given.

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