FeaturedNews

Electra.aero works with Yugo to open up new destinations in Asia for private air travel using its eSTOL aircraft

Electra.aero has part­nered with and pri­vate air mobil­i­ty plat­form Yugoto help expand air mobil­i­ty ser­vices to urban and under­served des­ti­na­tions in the Asia-Pacif­ic region.

As part of a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU), Yugo intends to acquire up to 12 of Elec­tra’s eSTOL air­craft for use in its cur­rent and future envi­sioned air mobil­i­ty net­work in Asia-Pacif­ic and oth­er areas, to enable high-speed trans­porta­tion ser­vices for pas­sen­gers and poten­tial­ly car­go. 

The two com­pa­nies will joint­ly pur­sue urban and region­al mar­kets to be served by Yugo’s net­work cap­i­tal­is­ing on the eSTOL air­plane’s ultra-short take­off and land­ing capa­bil­i­ty. They will also col­lab­o­rate on eSTOL per­for­mance, eco­nom­ics, and pas­sen­ger expe­ri­ence ele­ments nec­es­sary to achieve Yugo’s pro­ject­ed oper­a­tions. 

Jim Baldy, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer (CEO) of Yugo, said: “We are thrilled to work with Elec­tra to deliv­er clean­er and cost-effec­tive avi­a­tion in Asia-Pacif­ic. Yugo is com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing con­ve­nient, safe, and effi­cient urban and region­al air mobil­i­ty ser­vices to our mem­bers and cus­tomers.

“With Elec­tra’s ver­sa­tile and sus­tain­able eSTOL air­craft, we will be able to pro­vide our busi­ness and tourism cus­tomers unpar­al­leled flight solu­tions and expand our ser­vice to pre­vi­ous­ly under­served or inac­ces­si­ble loca­tions, while also pro­tect­ing frag­ile envi­ron­ments.” 

Elec­tra is devel­op­ing sus­tain­able hybrid-elec­tric eSTOL air­craft that will enable peo­ple and car­go to tran­sit more rapid­ly, safe­ly, and afford­ably with­in urban and region­al net­works. The plane’s abil­i­ty to take off and land in spaces as small as 300x100 feet, with in-flight bat­tery recharg­ing, enables flight oper­a­tions from places pre­vi­ous­ly inac­ces­si­ble by flight includ­ing park­ing lots and remote land­ing strips.

The pilot­ed fixed-wing air­craft will ini­tial­ly car­ry up to nine pas­sen­gers or 1800 pounds of car­go up to 500 miles in all weath­er con­di­tions, with less fuel burn and emis­sions per pas­sen­ger than a per­son­al car. With the Yugo MOU, Elec­tra now has com­mit­ments cov­er­ing near­ly 300 air­craft orders from part­ners in North Amer­i­ca, Latin Amer­i­ca, Europe, Aus­tralia, and Asia.

John S. Lang­ford, Founder and CEO of Electra.aero, said: “Advanced air mobil­i­ty holds excit­ing promise to meet the trans­porta­tion chal­lenges of the Asia-Pacif­ic region, with its dense­ly pop­u­lat­ed cities and dis­persed island com­mu­ni­ties amid the fastest-grow­ing econ­o­my in the world. 

“Our air­plane’s abil­i­ty to take off and land in small spaces means we can fly more peo­ple faster, qui­eter, and more afford­ably to more diverse des­ti­na­tions while achiev­ing low­er emis­sions and reduced oper­at­ing costs. Elec­tra is delight­ed to part­ner with Yugo to bring the ben­e­fits of our eSTOL tech­nol­o­gy to this dynam­ic mar­ket.” 

Based in Sin­ga­pore, Yugo is a offers glob­al on-demand book­ings of char­ter flights of pri­vate jets and heli­copters, with a focus on Asia-Pacif­ic. Yugo pro­vides its user­base and mem­bers with access to an exten­sive net­work of hun­dreds of air­craft, from light jets such as the Cess­na Cita­tion to longer range jets like the Gulf­stream G650ER.

Avatar photo

Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

eVTOL Insights is part of the Industry Insights Group. Registered in the UK. Company No: 14395769