If sitting in Los Angeles traffic on the way to a concert has ever made you wish your car could simply lift off the ground, welp: AEG has some news for you.
The live entertainment giant has entered a multi-year partnership with Archer Aviation to pursue a “vertiport” at L.A. LIVE, its four-million-square-foot entertainment district beside Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles. In normal-person language, that means a place where small electric aircraft could take off and land vertically, potentially flying fans, artists, and VIP visitors to and from concerts and sporting events.
Yup, AEG wants to fly people to shows in air taxis. That’s some futuristic stuff right there.
Under the agreement, Archer will become L.A. LIVE’s exclusive "air-taxi partner." The proposed site would be the first vertiport announced in downtown Los Angeles and part of a wider network Archer is planning around locations including SoFi Stadium, USC, and Hollywood Burbank Airport.
The company says its Midnight aircraft is designed to turn ground journeys that can take an hour or longer into electric flights of roughly 10 to 20 minutes. Archer is also the official air-taxi provider of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games and Team USA, giving everyone involved a very large, very public deadline around which to build hype.
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Before You Cancel Your Uber
There is a considerable gap between announcing a vertiport and watching four people descend from the heavens just in time for doors.
AEG and Archer have completed an initial feasibility study covering land use, airspace, electricity requirements and community impact. They are now reviewing operations and the prospective passenger experience. But the companies disclosed no construction timeline, opening date or financial terms, and Archer’s Midnight aircraft has not yet received FAA type certification.
No eVTOL aircraft has been type-certified in the United States, in fact. So this is a serious corporate partnership wrapped around a transportation system that does not yet commercially exist in the market where it is supposed to operate.
There are other obvious questions. What will a flight cost? Will air taxis offer meaningful transportation capacity or become glorified helicopters for VIPs? And how exactly will nearby communities feel about a stream of aircraft arriving beside an arena district?
For now, the flying-to-the-gig part remains aspirational.
The Concert Experience Starts Before the Concert
This announcement is interesting for reasons beyond its flying-car energy. One of the world’s largest live entertainment companies is treating transportation infrastructure as part of the fan experience. AEG’s Nick Baker said the project is intended to improve the experience surrounding the major sports and entertainment events held at L.A. LIVE.
That matters because some of the worst parts of attending a concert happen outside the venue: traffic, parking, unreliable public transit, rideshare surcharges and the eternal post-show question of how the hell everyone is getting home.
Most promoters will never need a vertiport. But they can still think more expansively about shuttle services, transit partnerships, parking information, safe late-night routes and how arrival and departure shape whether audiences return. Read this observation about how "waiting in line" before a concert can actually be a fan-building experience.
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