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Jaunt Air Mobility and Blade to launch eVTOL operations in India by 2027

Blade India, a joint ven­ture between Hunch Ven­tures and Blade Air Mobil­i­ty, will launch eVTOL air­craft oper­a­tions in India and the sub­con­ti­nent region by 2027 with Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty, a sub­sidiary of AIRO Group Hold­ings.

The two par­ties have signed a mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing (MOU) that includes Blade India’s intend­ed acqui­si­tion of 150 Jaunt Jour­ney air­craft, with an option to order anoth­er 100 air­craft to meet the pro­ject­ed demand over the next decade.

As the third largest avi­a­tion mar­ket in the world, India has a grow­ing need to con­nect pas­sen­gers in urban areas, where Blade has estab­lished short haul mobil­i­ty ser­vices in cities nation­wide.

Jaunt has pro­duced the all-elec­tric Jour­ney air­craft that com­bines heli­copter and fixed-wing flight capa­bil­i­ties for safe­ty, low noise and oper­a­tional effi­cien­cy, and is pur­su­ing a Trans­port Cat­e­go­ry cer­ti­fi­ca­tion equiv­a­lent to that of com­mer­cial air­lin­ers.

Plans include the devel­op­ment of a charg­ing and ener­gy dis­tri­b­u­tion infra­struc­ture, while Jaunt intends to use Blade India’s exist­ing short haul oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence to inte­grate into the Indi­an air­space.

Amit Dut­ta, man­ag­ing direc­tor of Blade India said: “With its vast expanse and increas­ing con­ges­tion, India is one of the biggest mar­kets in the world for advanced air mobil­i­ty, and this part­ner­ship is well poised to pio­neer the tran­si­tion to elec­tric trans­porta­tion.”

Jaunt chief com­mer­cial offi­cer Simon Briceno added: “We are thrilled to launch a new form of urban air trav­el in India and the sub­con­ti­nent, and our col­lab­o­ra­tion with Blade India and our path towards air­craft cer­ti­fi­ca­tion means that the Indi­an pub­lic will soon be able to ben­e­fit from afford­able and acces­si­ble trans­porta­tion.”

“Jaunt’s MOU with Blade India demon­strates AIRO’s com­mit­ment to bring­ing inno­v­a­tive air mobil­i­ty solu­tions to the peo­ple of India,” stat­ed Dr. Chir­in­jeev Kathuria, Chair­man and co-founder of AIRO.

Suren Ajjara­pu, chair­man and CEO of Ker­nel Group Hold­ings con­clud­ed: “The news of the MOU between Blade India and AIRO’s Elec­tric Air Mobil­i­ty divi­sion pro­vides a roadmap for inte­grat­ing eVTOLs into the glob­al trans­porta­tion mar­ket.”

Blade India began oper­a­tion in 2019 and offers air trans­porta­tion alter­na­tives to some of the most con­gest­ed ground routes in India with flights from Mum­bai, Shir­di, Pune, and Ban­ga­lore. Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty is head­quar­tered in Dal­las, Texas, with design and man­u­fac­tur­ing locat­ed in Mon­tre­al, Cana­da.

In Sep­tem­ber 2022, Blade India and Eve Air Mobil­i­ty announced a non-bind­ing order of up to 200 eVTOL air­craft using Eve’s urban air traf­fic man­age­ment soft­ware.

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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.

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