UNIVERSAL HYDROGEN AND ZEROAVIA BET ON HYDROGEN-ELECTRIC POWERTRAINS

Universal Hydrogen and ZeroAvia don’t make aircraft themselves, but they do make hydrogen-electric powertrains that can be retrofitted or line fitted onto existing aircraft designs.

There's an obvious potential for the current business jet manufacturers to work with one of these two companies in converting their aircraft to zero emissions alternatives. Source: ZeroAvia

THE EVTOL “AIR TAXIS” MAY FLY OVER BUSY METROPOLITAN AREAS SOON

Finally, eVTOLs (an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft) or ‘air taxis’ have a clear business aviation appeal. In fact, the first routes operated by Archer and Joby, two manufacturers at the head of the eVTOL pack, will be ones currently operated by helicopter charter companies - namely central LA and NYC to LAX and Newark/JFK. Archer’s CEO, Adam Goldstein, recently shared on our podcast that his vision is to operate “electric gondolas in the sky” that take off continuously one after another to carry passengers between two points. Similarly, Halo Aviation, a company currently operating private helicopter charter flights, has placed an aircraft order with Eve, the eVTOL company spun out of Embraer. We see a clear business case for companies and business executives using eVTOLs within urban conurbations. And not only in Europe or North America. For example, start-up FlyBIS has signed an order with Eve to provide air mobility services in Latin American cities that are often congested with traffic and don’t offer good public transport alternatives.