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MIDDLE EAST: MWASALAT to develop aerial logistics programs with Odys Aviation’s hybrid-electric VTOL Aircraft in Oman

Odys Avi­a­tion and MWASALAT, the Omani Nation­al Trans­port Com­pa­ny, will col­lab­o­rate on the devel­op­ment of pro­grams in Oman with 25 of Odys’ uncrewed air­craft — known as ‘Laila’ — with the inten­tion of launch­ing ini­tial pilot pro­grams on unpop­u­lat­ed and defined routes with pre-pro­duc­tion air­craft in 2025.

In an announce­ment made yes­ter­day (Thurs­day), the two com­pa­nies will work togeth­er to under­take joint research and devel­op­ment activ­i­ties to define tar­get routes and ser­vices using Odys Aviation’s pre-pro­duc­tion air­craft, lever­ag­ing the exist­ing rela­tion­ship and for­mal engage­ment Odys has with Oman’s CAA.

This is with a view to estab­lish­ing new aer­i­al logis­tics net­works with Odys’ Laila air­craft upon receiv­ing full reg­u­la­to­ry approval. The part­ner­ship also focus­es on enhanc­ing the func­tion­al­i­ty and defin­ing the appli­ca­tions of Odys Aviation’s Laila air­craft in the GCC.

Bad­er AlNad­abi, CEO of MWASALAT, said: “MWASALAT is excit­ed to be part­ner­ing with Odys Avi­a­tion to pio­neer the future of sus­tain­able air mobil­i­ty in Oman using their inno­v­a­tive hybrid ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing tech­nol­o­gy.

“These new air vehi­cles will rev­o­lu­tion­ize mobil­i­ty across mul­ti­ple sec­tors in Oman and beyond, and we’re look­ing for­ward to see­ing the impact across the busi­ness­es we sup­port across the region when our pilot pro­grams roll out in 2025.”

Laila is a hybrid-elec­tric VTOL air­craft designed in mul­ti­ple con­fig­u­ra­tions for car­go and capa­ble of trans­port­ing pay­loads up to 60kg with a 400 km range. Mis­sions oper­at­ed via these air­craft pro­vide a low-car­bon air car­go alter­na­tive for routes across Oman, open­ing up oppor­tu­ni­ties that have pre­vi­ous­ly been time-con­sum­ing or inac­ces­si­ble because of infra­struc­ture and geo­graph­i­cal chal­lenges.

Beyond iden­ti­fy­ing appli­ca­tions, the two orga­ni­za­tions will col­lab­o­rate to devel­op con­cepts of oper­a­tions that will define air­craft main­te­nance oper­a­tions and reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance for the air­craft in ser­vice.

Dur­ing pilot oper­a­tions, MWASALAT will facil­i­tate use of these air­craft for enti­ties includ­ing Oman Post and Asyad Group for logis­tics oper­a­tions. In the long-term, it is antic­i­pat­ed that Odys Aviation’s air­craft will sup­port MWASALAT with fur­ther appli­ca­tions for var­i­ous sec­tors includ­ing pas­sen­ger trans­porta­tion, oil and gas ser­vices, secu­ri­ty, tourism, health ser­vices and civ­il defense.

James Dor­ris, CEO and Co-Founder of Odys Avi­a­tion, said: “The team at Odys Avi­a­tion has always been com­mit­ted to advanc­ing sus­tain­able avi­a­tion and we’re thrilled to be work­ing with MWASALAT’s pro­gres­sive lead­er­ship to devel­op and imple­ment mean­ing­ful pilot ini­tia­tives that will prove the use case for this tech­nol­o­gy.”

To fur­ther sup­port activ­i­ties in the GCC, Odys recent­ly announced the appoint­ment of Moosa Al Balushi to the posi­tion of Region­al Direc­tor Busi­ness Devel­op­ment, based in Mus­cat.

Moosa is a lead­ing fig­ure in the UAV indus­try in Oman and brings a wealth of proven expe­ri­ence in the reg­u­la­to­ry space. With expe­ri­ence in exec­u­tive roles at UVL Robot­ics and a track record of imple­ment­ing gov­ern­men­tal strate­gies in logis­tics, Moosa is well placed to direct ini­tia­tives to sup­port the oper­a­tion of UAVs in Oman and the GCC across both pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors.

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