NBAA-BACE Newsmakers Lunch: AAM, FBO Execs Discuss Keys to Bringing eVTOLs to Market

Oct. 22, 2024

As advanced air mobility (AAM) developers close in on certification and operations, attention is shifting now to answering critical questions about how to bring these new aircraft to market.

With that in mind, several of the aviation industry’s most important AAM and FBO executives gathered to discuss those next steps at the 2024 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) in Las Vegas, as viable business models begin to take shape for these innovative, low-emissions platforms.

“You want to start disrupting markets,” said B. Marc Allen, chief executive officer at Electra.aero, Inc., headquartered in Manassas, VA. “So, for us, the 2,200 provisional orders we’ve taken from 53 operators all envision taking our aircraft and dropping them into existing route structures.”

Electra is developing a hybrid electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) airplane designed to takeoff or land with as little as 150 feet of space. Allen is confident that the aircraft will succeed due in part to its relatively low noise output, easier access to landing and takeoff zones and low emissions.

The aviation industry has already started developing the necessary ground infrastructure to maintain AAM passenger aircraft, including charging stations and other equipment needed for battery enabled propulsion systems.

Vermont-based BETA Technologies – which is developing its ALIA electric aircraft – has already installed its innovative multi-modal charging stations at multiple airports across Florida, helping to solve that “chicken-or-egg” question about electric aircraft and available fuel. BETA, which has also placed charging stations in Massachusetts and Alabama, is well on its way toward its current goal of building a network of 150 charging facilities, nationwide.

But in the coming years, as more and more electric aircraft enter service, Tony Lefebvre, chief executive officer at Signature Aviation, said scaling up will present FBOs with challenges in maintaining needed charging capacity.

“It’s about how we’re going to be able to operate, really figuring out what are the operational needs as they continue to build the various vehicles, and then making sure that we have the proper infrastructure to be able to support the 600, 700, 800 locations – or coming up with alternatives, so that they can continue to fly out of one location and then reposition for charging,” he said.

“We’re going to need a lot more [charging] nodes in interesting places that don’t have to be super capital-intensive to get it done,” said Jeff Foland, CEO and board member at Atlantic Aviation. “We have three facilities today that are charging or have charge capability for aircraft and more that are in design and construction. We have another 15 that are in a very advanced exploration stage.”

BETA CEO Kyle Clark said he believes an important part of entering the market will be public acceptance.

“We offer everybody in the company flight lessons and their families, and we have more than 400 people in flight school right now.” Clark said the industry now needs to actively sell the public on electric flight, “because now we’ve changed the rules. We’ve made it more economical, and we can include kids, we can include their families, and all of a sudden it becomes a positive thing as opposed to an exclusive thing.”

Another selling point for the market will be lower cost, said Sebastien Borel, chief commercial officer at Germany-based Lilium. “As we mature our product, and as we get the battery cost down, we’re going to bring the unit economics to an interesting point where we want to be, roughly speaking, below $2 per city mile,” he said. “Once you get there, you can actually have a schedule progression for everyone to connect cities with each other.”

Overall, said Lefebvre, the collaboration with the industry for planning the future of AAM “has been a fantastic learning experience and I think as that continues, we’ll be able to do this at an accelerated pace.”