New Delhi: The government of Andhra Pradesh is staking a bold claim in the future of aviation – by building India’s largest electric air taxi manufacturing factory. This week, the state government signed a Rs 1,300 crore MoU with Bengaluru-based Sarla Aviation to build a 500-acre “Sky Factory” in Anantapur, over 450 km from the state capital, Amaravati.
Sarla, founded in 2023 and backed by venture capital firm Accel, is designing a six-seater electric flying taxi aimed at disrupting commute times in the country’s largest metros. Their flagship product, Shunya, is currently in development and boasts three configurations: a six-seater, a four-seater, and a cargo-only variation.
These air taxis have vertical take-off and can land without requiring a runway. Once operational, the factory will produce up to 1,000 such taxis per year. The factory aims to also host a full flying-mobility ecosystem, with pilot training, simulation labs, and composite manufacturing facilities.
“With the world’s biggest sky factory, we want to make India the nerve centre for the next era of flight. This giga facility will shape the aircraft of the future, create thousands of high-skill jobs, and establish India as a global force in sustainable aerial mobility,” Rakesh Gaonkar, co-founder and CTO of Sarla Aviation, said at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Summit.
Goal 2047
The Anantapur project is divided into two parts. In the first phase, about 150 acres will be developed with the core infrastructure—the production lines, the R&D, and composite units, and a dedicated runway long enough for test flights and certification trials. A second expansion spanning roughly 350 acres will be planned once the initial facilities are up and running.
Sarla Aviation is aiming to begin test flights by 2027 and move into full commercial production two years later. The project is expected to pull in a small but high-skilled workforce in the beginning: a few dozen specialised roles on site and more than a hundred support roles around it.
The choice of Anantapur and neighbouring Kurnool is part of Andhra Pradesh’s plan to build an advanced-manufacturing belt in the region. The state is taking advantage of the region’s proximity to Bengaluru’s tech ecosystem while pushing its own Swarna Andhra @2047 agenda, a vision to transform the state into a Rs 308 lakh crore ($2.4 trillion) economy by 2047.
Mass adoption bottlenecks
Globally, several air taxi companies are testing flights and pilots. Joby Aviation, a US-based company, joined a pilot programme by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to speed up the deployment of air taxis in September 2025. EHang, a Chinese company, is already operating autonomous passenger flights in China with partnerships and trials in the UAE, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Spain.
But there are bottlenecks to mass adoption. Regulatory hurdles, financing and infrastructure challenges have all led to the death of air taxi startups. Germany’s Volocopter – one of Europe’s first air taxi companies – filed for insolvency in 2024 after failing to raise fresh funds.
While the facility in Andhra Pradesh aims to begin commercial production by 2029, mass adoption of the services may take longer. Take-off and landing hubs are not yet widely available. Energy infrastructure, pilot training, air-traffic management, and public acceptance are all open questions. And the regulatory framework is unclear.
Even if production does scale up, the price per trip may become a barrier, especially in metro cities like Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad—where people prefer cheaper, more affordable modes of transportation.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)