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Sweden: Region Gotland “Collaborates with Heart Aerospace for Sustainable Aviation”

Region Got­land, the largest island in the Baltic Sea, has signed a col­lab­o­ra­tion agree­ment with hybrid-elec­tric air­plane mak­er, Heart Aero­space, to accel­er­ate the intro­duc­tion of sus­tain­able air trav­el in Swe­den, reports a press release.

Locat­ed off the south-east coast of main­land Swe­den, Got­land is home to approx­i­mate­ly 61,000 per­ma­nent res­i­dents, with an addi­tion­al large pop­u­la­tion of tourists  dur­ing the sum­mer months. Reli­able and sus­tain­able trans­porta­tion is impor­tant for Got­land’s acces­si­bil­i­ty and devel­op­ment, mak­ing this ini­tia­tive cru­cial for the region.

Got­land is com­mit­ted to hav­ing at least one oper­a­tor fly­ing com­mer­cial­ly with elec­tric air­craft to and from the island. “This ini­tia­tive,” explains the release, “aligns with broad­er objec­tives to reduce green­house gas emis­sions and enhance the region’s attrac­tive­ness.”

It con­tin­ues, “A roadmap for the intro­duc­tion of elec­tric avi­a­tion has been recent­ly devel­oped by Sci­ence Park Got­land, the Region’s busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, and where the elec­tric avi­a­tion indus­try resides.”

Meit Fohlin, Social Democ­rats, Chair of the Region­al Exec­u­tive Board,  com­ment­ed, “On Got­land, we are entire­ly depen­dent on air and fer­ry traf­fic to and from the island, where we must be able to trav­el sus­tain­ably. This deci­sion to deep­en the col­lab­o­ra­tion with Heart Aero­space is an impor­tant mile­stone on our jour­ney.”

Got­land is Swe­den’s “Sum­mer Par­adise”

Heart Aero­space is devel­op­ing the ES-30, a region­al hybrid-elec­tric air­plane with a seat­ing capac­i­ty of 30 pas­sen­gers. The air­craft “aims to deliv­er unpar­al­leled sus­tain­abil­i­ty and effi­cien­cy on short-haul routes.” With a ful­ly elec­tric zero-emis­sion range of 200 kilo­me­tres and an extend­ed hybrid range of 400 kilo­me­tres, the ES-30 offers low­er emis­sions and oper­at­ing costs.

Anders Forslund, co-Founder and CEO of Heart Aero­space, remarked, “We have just entered an excit­ing new phase of hard­ware test­ing with an aim to have a hybrid-elec­tric pas­sen­ger plane on the mar­ket before the end of this decade.” 

He con­tin­ued, “As we get clos­er to this goal, col­lab­o­ra­tions with air­ports, oper­a­tors and region­al author­i­ties are impor­tant to form the eco-sys­tem required to sup­port elec­tric avi­a­tion.”

Mean­while, the part­ners are to explore oper­a­tional needs, tech­ni­cal require­ments, ground infra­struc­ture and main­te­nance, as well as busi­ness mod­els. Last year, Heart Aero­space announced a sim­i­lar col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Gov­ern­ment of Åland in Fin­land.

The com­pa­ny has already secured 250 orders for the ES-30, with options and pur­chase rights for anoth­er 120 air­craft. It also has Let­ters of Intent for a fur­ther 191 planes.

For more infor­ma­tion

www.heartaerospace.com

(Top image: Heart Aero­space ES-30)

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