Blade Runners
Major airlines are making multimilliondollar bets on all-electric aircraft for short-hop transportation
DELTA AIR LINES HAS announced an initial equity investment of $60 million in air taxi startup Joby Aviation, an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer, which Delta plans to deploy in home-to-airport premium services, initially in the New York and Los Angeles markets. The air taxi service will integrate into Delta’s customer-facing channels to allow passengers traveling through New York and Los Angeles to get to the airport in a quicker, safer and more environmentally friendly way.
Joby is optimistic that its five-seat air taxi design will be ready for operation by 2024. The aircraft, designed for fast, quiet and sustainable short flights in and around cities, has flown more than 1,000 test flights as it seeks an airworthiness certificate from the FAA.
With its Joby investment, Delta joins American and United Airlines as players in the eVTOL market, which is projected to reach $2.3 billion by 2027. It’s an aviation sector that’s attracting major players in aerospace, such as Airbus, Boeing, Siemens and Rolls-Royce, in addition to a host of start-up companies with names like Eve Air Mobility and Heart Aerospace. In September, U.K.-based Vertical Aerospace announced a successful full-scale piloted test flight for its VX4 flying taxi. American Airlines has made a $25 million investment in the company and agreed to purchase 250 VX4 aircraft to be deployed as shuttle transport for passengers to and from airports by 2025. For its part, United Airlines announced a conditional agreement in September to buy 200 four-seat electric aircraft from Embraer subsidiary Eve Air Mobility with options for 200 more. The first deliveries are expected by 2026.
United Airlines has struck deals with several other electric airplane developers, including a $1 billion order for battery-powered shorthaul electric aircraft from Archer Aviation. In August, the carrier paid $10 million for a pre-delivery order for 100 of Archer’s eVTOL aircraft, which the company plans to start delivering by 2025. United is also expanding the scope of its plans for electric aircraft to include longer-range regional services. In 2021, United struck a conditional agreement with Swedish start-up Heart Aerospace for 100 of its aircraft operating from conventional runways. Heart has redesigned its original 19-seat aircraft to carry 30 passengers 125 miles in all-electric zero-emissions mode, or 250 miles using electric-hybrid power yielding a 50 percent reduction in emissions per seat.
The target would be to use the Heart ES-30 to replace current turboprop technology on regional routes operated by United and Mesa Airlines.