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Air New Zealand agrees clean tech aircraft partnership with Avolon, includes sale and leaseback of BETA’s Alia CTOL aircraft

Avolon and Air New Zealand have agreed a mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing to part­ner on research to sup­port the com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of elec­tric air­craft, and oth­er nov­el propul­sion tech­nolo­gies includ­ing bat­tery hybrid and hydro­gen.

The agree­ment also includes the sign­ing a let­ter of intent (LOI) for the sale and lease­back of BETA Tech­nolo­gies’ Alia CX300 elec­tric car­go air­craft.

The coven­tion­al take-off and land­ing (CTOL) air­craft will car­ry up to 560kg of car­go per flight for the air­line and is due for deliv­ery in 2026. It will be used by Air New Zealand to car­ry car­go between Welling­ton and Blenheim through its part­ner­ship with New Zealand Post.

Andy Cronin, CEO, Avolon com­ment­ed: “Lessors have an impor­tant role to play in sup­port­ing the com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of clean tech air­craft to help the avi­a­tion sec­tor achieve its net zero ambi­tions.

“This part­ner­ship with Air New Zealand reflects Avolon’s com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing inno­va­tion, build­ing on our invest­ment in Ver­ti­cal Aero­space and our involve­ment with Air­bus’ ZEROe Project.”

The wider col­lab­o­ra­tion between Avolon and Air New Zealand reflects both com­pa­nies’ dri­ve to take lead­er­ship posi­tions in sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of clean tech air­craft, con­tribut­ing to the decar­bon­i­sa­tion of air trav­el, and sup­port­ing the avi­a­tion sector’s net zero 2050 ambi­tion.

Richard Thom­son, Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer at Air New Zealand, added: “Intro­duc­ing new tech­nol­o­gy into the avi­a­tion sec­tor is not some­thing any one organ­i­sa­tion can do alone. It will require engage­ment across the board includ­ing reg­u­la­tors, main­te­nance and sup­ply chain, day of oper­a­tions and financ­ing. 

“With regard to the lat­ter, this part­ner­ship with Avolon is anoth­er impor­tant step in our Next Gen­er­a­tion Air­craft pro­gramme of work. While only a small tri­al, it will allow us to under­stand what the financ­ing of this pro­gramme could look like in the future so we’re incred­i­bly grate­ful for Avolon lean­ing in and sup­port­ing us on our jour­ney.”

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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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