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UAM MARKET PULSE · ISSUE 12
Friday, June 5, 2026
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98.5% of U.S. Heliports Have Never Been Independently Inspected
This week we published an independent audit of the FAA’s record of all 5,647 U.S. heliports, reviewed by Rex Alexander, FRAeS, chair of NFPA 418. The record that operators, insurers, and advanced-air-mobility planners rely on turns out to be stale, incomplete, almost never inspected, and in places plotted miles from where the aircraft actually land. Every figure reproduces from public data.
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Score Changes This Week
All 25 tracked markets held this week — no audited score moves.
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Markets to Watch This Week
Top 5 markets by predictive significance, generated from the AirIndex
Forward Signals pipeline as of 2026-06-05.
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POSITIVE WATCH / IMPROVING
Signals 30d: 27 (#2)
Florida: strong enforcement, active DOT · Cluster: Florida Corridor
- 12 regulatory posture change events tracked (3 high confidence). Regulatory posture shift — typically follows executive order or task force. Validation event only — miami already has full credit on regulatoryPosture. — 30-90 days
- 8 infrastructure development events tracked (1 high confidence). Infrastructure development announcement — typical permit-to-operational cycle 3-12 months. Validation event only — miami already has full credit on approvedVertiport. — 3-12 months for build/permit cycle
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NEGATIVE WATCH / DETERIORATING
Signals 30d: 17 (#6)
Florida: strong enforcement, active DOT · Cluster: Florida Corridor
30d forecast: +5 points
- 19 operator market expansion events tracked (5 high confidence). Operator announcement — follow-on operational events typically follow. — 30-180 days for operational follow-up (+5 points if realized)
- 10 regulatory posture change events tracked (1 high confidence). Regulatory posture shift — typically follows executive order or task force. Validation event only — orlando already has full credit on regulatoryPosture. — 30-90 days
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DEVELOPING / STABLE
Signals 30d: 239 (#1)
New York: moderate enforcement, emerging DOT · Cluster: Northeast Corridor
- 606 operator market expansion events tracked (546 high confidence). Operator announcement — follow-on operational events typically follow. Validation event only — new_york already has full credit on activeOperatorPresence. — 30-180 days for operational follow-up
- 9 infrastructure development events tracked (6 high confidence). Infrastructure development announcement — typical permit-to-operational cycle 3-12 months. Validation event only — new_york already has full credit on approvedVertiport. — 3-12 months for build/permit cycle
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NEGATIVE WATCH / DETERIORATING
Signals 30d: 26 (#3)
Florida: strong enforcement, active DOT · Cluster: Florida Corridor
- 16 infrastructure development events tracked (1 high confidence). Infrastructure development announcement — typical permit-to-operational cycle 3-12 months. — 3-12 months for build/permit cycle (+15 points if realized)
- 9 regulatory posture change events tracked (1 high confidence). Regulatory posture shift — typically follows executive order or task force. Validation event only — tampa already has full credit on regulatoryPosture. — 30-90 days
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STABLE / STABLE
Signals 30d: 1 (#18)
North Carolina: limited enforcement, emerging DOT · Cluster: Southeast Emerging
30d forecast: +5 points
- 16 operator market expansion events tracked (5 high confidence). Operator announcement — follow-on operational events typically follow. — 30-180 days for operational follow-up (+5 points if realized)
- faa certification milestone — Aircraft certification milestone — typically precedes operator deployment by 2-6 months — 60-180 days for operational follow-up (+5 points if realized)
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See full ranked digest →
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Industry Snapshot
This week the AirIndex pipeline ingested 201 new filings, processed 508 status changes, and logged 6 market-watch updates, for 715 tracked events in all since 2026-05-29. Below are the developments worth your attention.
- WATCH CHANGESan Antonio: watch status → POSITIVE WATCH, outlook → IMPROVING
- WATCH CHANGEHouston: watch status → POSITIVE WATCH, outlook → IMPROVING
- WATCH CHANGEAustin: watch status → POSITIVE WATCH, outlook → IMPROVING
- WATCH CHANGETampa: watch status → NEGATIVE WATCH, outlook → DETERIORATING
- WATCH CHANGEOrlando: watch status → NEGATIVE WATCH, outlook → DETERIORATING
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What the Audit Found
We checked the FAA’s heliport registry against independent public sources: USGS terrain, the federal hospital registry, measured pad dimensions, and obstruction data. The same gaps turned up across the whole fleet, and every one reproduces from the same files.
- Uninspected. 98.5% of U.S. heliports carry no record of an agency field inspection. Only 86 of the 5,647 do (3 federal, 60 state, 23 contractor). The rest is owner-reported, and no one ever verified it.
- Incomplete. 1,121 hospital helipads have no FAA heliport on record within a nautical mile, and 1,064 of them are at operating hospitals. Most are rural, where a medevac helicopter often has nowhere else to land.
- Undetermined. 93.5% (5,281 of 5,647) have no FAA airspace determination on file.
- Mislocated. A Nashville television station’s helipad has sat in the federal database 48.5 nautical miles from where it actually is, since 1979. We confirmed it with our own check.
Of all 5,647 facilities, exactly two meet the dimensional bar for eVTOL operations today.
The full report is public and free to read: The State of the U.S. Heliport Record, with the methodology and Rex’s independent review in full. If you administer or underwrite a U.S. helipad, you can now look up any facility’s status in about 30 seconds with Helipad Check.
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UAM Market Pulse is a weekly intelligence digest from AirIndex. Forward signals are derived from the AirIndex Forward Signals pipeline aggregating classifier outputs, MarketWatch trajectory, and pre-development facility milestones.
AirIndex · UAM Market Readiness Intelligence · airindex.io
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