Air New Zealand and BETA Technologies wrap up first phase of Next Generation aircraft demonstrator programme

Air New Zealand and BETA Tech­nolo­gies have com­plet­ed their four-month Next Gen­er­a­tion Air­craft Tech­ni­cal Demon­stra­tor Pro­gramme, mark­ing an impor­tant step in under­stand­ing how emerg­ing air­craft tech­nolo­gies could oper­ate in New Zealand in the future.

Dur­ing the pro­gramme, the bat­tery-elec­tric ALIA CX300 com­plet­ed more than 100 flights, flew 13,000 kilo­me­tres and vis­it­ed 12 air­ports or aero­dromes across the North and South Islands. 

Two Air New Zealand pilots and eight BETA Tech­nolo­gies pilots flew the air­craft in a range of con­di­tions, build­ing real-world oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence along­side the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty and air­port part­ners in Hamil­ton, Welling­ton and Marl­bor­ough.  

Air New Zealand’s Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Strat­e­gy, Net­works and Fleet, Baden Smith, says the pro­gramme deliv­ered valu­able insights on how an elec­tric propul­sion air­craft per­forms, what’s required to oper­ate with­in New Zealand’s exist­ing avi­a­tion sys­tems, and how future tech­nolo­gies could inte­grate into the avi­a­tion net­work. 

He said: “This pro­gramme was about learn­ing by doing. Fly­ing the air­craft in real con­di­tions, across real routes, with our peo­ple and part­ners involved has giv­en us a much deep­er under­stand­ing of what next-gen­er­a­tion air­craft could mean for New Zealand avi­a­tion in the future. 

“We worked through every­thing from pilot train­ing and flight plan­ning to ener­gy use, air­port inter­faces and air­space inte­gra­tion. Those learn­ings will direct­ly inform how we think about the future of our fleet, our net­work, and scal­ing this type of tech­nol­o­gy”

A key mile­stone was New Zealand’s first low-emis­sions instru­ment flight rules (IFR) oper­a­tion in Decem­ber. IFR fly­ing allows pilots to oper­ate using flight­deck instru­ments rather than visu­al cues, which is crit­i­cal in low-vis­i­bil­i­ty or cloudy con­di­tions.

The pro­gramme also includ­ed Wellington–Blenheim cross­ings, under­stand­ing how the air­craft oper­at­ed across Cook Strait in real-world con­di­tions. 

The pro­gramme high­light­ed the oper­a­tional effi­cien­cies that emerg­ing air­craft tech­nolo­gies could offer, includ­ing the Welling­ton-Blenheim route show­ing a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence between con­ven­tion­al fuel costs of approx­i­mate­ly $110 in a Cess­na Car­a­van and elec­tri­cal ener­gy use of $20 in the ALIA CX300.  

Air New Zealand also car­ried more than 20 tonnes of mock car­go dur­ing the pro­gramme, and beyond fly­ing, around 700 peo­ple expe­ri­enced the ALIA CX300 up close. 

Smith added: “What stood out was how strong­ly peo­ple respond­ed once they could see and touch the air­craft. It’s helped move the con­ver­sa­tion from ‘What If’ to ‘How Might This Work’, which is exact­ly what a tech­ni­cal demon­stra­tor pro­gramme should do.” 

While the ALIA CX300 demon­stra­tor will now be hand­ed back to BETA Tech­nolo­gies for its next phase, Air New Zealand says the knowl­edge gained will con­tin­ue to shape dis­cus­sions with reg­u­la­tors, man­u­fac­tur­ers and part­ners as avi­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy evolves. 

BETA Tech­nolo­gies’ Head of Sales & Sup­port, Simon Newitt, said: “This pro­gramme showed what’s pos­si­ble when elec­tric air­craft are flown in real air­line envi­ron­ments.

“Fly­ing more than 100 flights across both islands, includ­ing Cook Strait cross­ings and New Zealand’s first low-emis­sions IFR oper­a­tions, gave our teams and Air New Zealand invalu­able insight into how elec­tric air­craft inte­grate with exist­ing air­space, air­ports, and every­day air­line work­flows.”  

“We’re grate­ful to work along­side Air New Zealand, the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty of New Zealand, and air­port part­ners includ­ing Welling­ton and Marl­bor­ough air­ports, whose infra­struc­ture invest­ments helped make this pro­gramme pos­si­ble. 

“New Zealand’s geog­ra­phy and region­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty needs make it a pow­er­ful prov­ing ground, enabling prac­ti­cal learn­ings that can sup­port more cost-effi­cient and sus­tain­able avi­a­tion here, while also inform­ing deploy­ments glob­al­ly.”

Smith added: “This pro­gramme puts New Zealand in a strong posi­tion — informed by evi­dence, expe­ri­ence and peo­ple — to make smart choic­es about the future.  Lead­ing inno­va­tors like BETA Tech­nolo­gies will change the game and we whole­heart­ed­ly thank them for their part­ner­ship.”