Airboat / Fanboat

A flat-bottomed swamp boat pushed by a caged rear fan, the airboat is a new vehicle class for the Grand Theft Auto series. Its real-world basis is the custom fanboats built by Florida makers like Panther Airboats, the shallow-draft craft tour operators use to skim across the Everglades. Rockstar put it to work in Leonida's Grass Rivers, the game's version of that wetland. It first appears in the debut trailer around the 0:19 mark, gliding past flamingos and alligators, and it returns in the second trailer being chased by a Buzzard attack helicopter. Because a fan drives it rather than a submerged propeller, the design can cross reeds, mud, and inches-deep water where a normal boat would run aground.

No in-game name has been confirmed, so "airboat" and "fanboat" are descriptive placeholders. How it handles as a player vehicle is still unknown ahead of the November 19, 2026 release.

It appears again in Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look on August 27, 2026, this time under player control. Outlets watching the premiere describe an airboat crossing the wetlands during the activity montage, in an area they recognised as Everglades-style swamp rather than one named on screen. Rockstar's own name for that region is Grassrivers. That makes this the first time the airboat has been shown as something you drive rather than something the camera passes.