Governor Ron DeSantis has signed House Bill 1093, giving Florida the green light to spend state money on vertiports, the landing pads, charging networks, and support facilities meant for electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. The measure, approved on April 20, 2026, takes effect July 1, 2026, and lets the Florida Department of Transportation step directly into the financing game for those aerial hubs.
What the Law Actually Does
The enrolled bill adds vertiports and charging systems to the state’s list of qualifying public-private partnership projects and revises the definition of airport infrastructure, so it explicitly covers vertiport pads, safety zones, and grid upgrades. It authorizes FDOT to pay up to 100 percent of the project costs for a public vertiport when there are no federal funds in play, or up to 80 percent of the nonfederal share when federal money is available, according to the bill's enrolled text.
FDOT Makes the Big Pitch
State transportation officials have been quietly, and not so quietly, pitching Florida as an early home for Advanced Air Mobility and a national testbed for eVTOL companies, hoping to reel in jobs and industry investment. The Florida Department of Transportation has said it is ready to support AAM infrastructure development, and FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue told WFSU the technology could be “a very big impact on congestion relief and safety for transportation in the state of Florida.”
SunTrax and the Aerial Test Bed
FDOT’s SunTrax campus in Polk County is already billed as Florida’s Advanced Air Mobility research and development hub, with plans for multiple vertiports and a dedicated aerial test track. SunTrax materials and state announcements say the site will link proposed flight corridors across Tampa, Orlando, and the Space Coast and serve as the front line for demonstrations and industry partnerships.
Federal Rules and the Timeline
At the federal level, the FAA has issued Engineering Brief 105A as supplemental guidance for vertiport design while certification and operational rules continue to develop. A new federal pilot program to speed up eVTOL integration is also moving ahead, and industry and state materials say demonstration flights and pilot projects could start ramping up in 2026–2027 as federal approvals move along.
Local Impacts and Next Steps
The law also tells commercial-service airports to fold vertiport pads, charging systems, and resilience energy systems into their infrastructure plans and to provide an annual certification to the department, language that effectively nudges airports to start planning now for AAM. The measure moved quickly through Tallahassee, clearing both chambers unanimously, and the governor’s signature now positions state agencies and local airports to request or receive FDOT support for eligible projects.
Legal and Funding Notes
The new authority to pay for vertiports is tied to actual appropriations and grant dollars. The bill itself stresses that FDOT participation is subject to the availability of appropriated funds, which leaves real-world spending decisions to future state budgets and federal grant awards. At the same time, FAA guidance such as EB 105A is currently advisory and will be updated as more operational data comes in, so the federal oversight and technical standards side of the equation is still very much a work in progress.
What to watch now: FDOT and SunTrax are likely to roll out calls for partnerships, and airports around the state may start pinpointing potential sites and seeking state support before the year is out. The Jacksonville Business Journal and earlier Hoodline coverage of the SunTrax AAM plans have flagged the milestones and local planning that will decide how fast aerial services move from test runs to everyday commercial operations.
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