“Ascendance Technologies Broadens International Footprint in Asia”

Ascen­dance, a French devel­op­er of hybrid-elec­tric VTOL air­craft, has announced recent­ly, the sign­ing of two major col­lab­o­ra­tions in Malaysia, reports a press release.

Dur­ing an offi­cial cer­e­mo­ny held at the HQ of Malaysia’s Min­istry of Invest­ment, Trade and Indus­try (MITI), the com­pa­ny has entered into two Mem­o­ran­dums of Under­stand­ing (MOU) with Pen Avi­a­tion and Pahang Aero­space City Devel­op­ment Berhad (PAC). 

The release explains, “These agree­ments strength­en Ascendance’s pres­ence in a region where air traf­fic is expect­ed to grow by over 5 per­cent annu­al­ly through 2040, dri­ven by ambi­tious inno­va­tion and ener­gy tran­si­tion goals.

Indus­tri­al Alliance with Pen Avi­a­tion

Pen Avi­a­tion, is a key play­er in Malaysian aero­space. The two par­ties are to explore the inte­gra­tion of Ascendance’s STERNA hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion sys­tem into local­ly devel­oped Unmanned Aer­i­al Vehi­cles (UAVs).

The agree­ment includes:-

: Dis­tri­b­u­tion of the ATEA VTOL air­craft in South­east Asia

: Analy­sis of use cas­es for ATEA in heli­port-to-heli­port con­nec­tions, as alter­na­tives or com­ple­ments to heli­copters.

This col­lab­o­ra­tion lays the ground­work for Ascendance’s entry into the Malaysian mar­ket and paves the way for sus­tain­able air mobil­i­ty tai­lored to region­al needs.

Ascen­dance ATEA hybrid-elec­tric air­craft (Cred­it: Ascen­dance)

Strate­gic Pres­ence at Pahang Aero­space City

The release con­tin­ues, “Ascen­dance is also rein­forc­ing its strate­gic pres­ence in Malaysia through its part­ner­ship with Pahang Aero­space City Devel­op­ment Berhad (PACDB), the devel­op­er of the Pahang Aero­space City (PAC), a sov­er­eign-backed aero­space inno­va­tion hub anchored with­in a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone (SEZ).” 

It adds, “The PAC devel­op­ment is strate­gi­cal­ly locat­ed adja­cent to the site of the pro­posed Al-Sul­tan Abdul­lah Kuan­tan Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (WMAA), envi­sioned as Malaysia’s next inter­na­tion­al gate­way for avi­a­tion and aero­space indus­tries.” 

Through this col­lab­o­ra­tion, the two par­ties will assess oppor­tu­ni­ties includ­ing:-

: Estab­lish­ing a ded­i­cat­ed hybrid propul­sion com­pe­tence cen­tre.

: Set­ting up a co-pro­duc­tion or assem­bly facil­i­ty.

: Organ­is­ing on-site flight demon­stra­tions.

: A Part­ner­ship with MRO ecosys­tem reg­u­la­to­ry author­i­ties  (CAAM, ICAO), and local aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tions includ­ing Malaysian lead­ing engi­neer­ing and tech­ni­cal pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty in Pahang, Uni­ver­si­ty Malaysia Pahang Al-Sul­tan Abdul­lah (UMPSA), to ensure align­ment with both nation­al pri­or­i­ties and glob­al stan­dards.

PAC pro­vides the com­pa­ny with a thriv­ing ecosys­tem designed to host new indus­tri­al projects and speed the devel­op­ment of a sus­tain­able Malaysian avi­a­tion sec­tor.

Jean-Christophe Lam­bert, CEO and co-Founder of Toulouse-based Ascen­dance remarked, “These struc­tur­ing agree­ments strength­en the abil­i­ty to quick­ly deploy our solu­tions in strate­gic mar­kets. They set the stage for future indus­tri­al part­ner­ships  and the estab­lish­ment of high-val­ue col­lab­o­ra­tions, to the ben­e­fit of our part­ners and the glob­al aero­space sec­tor.”

These two col­lab­o­ra­tions offer poten­tial eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties for Ascen­dance includ­ing:-

: Access to a rapid­ly grow­ing mar­ket.

: Poten­tial for local man­u­fac­tur­ing. 

: Inte­gra­tion into an aero­space ecosys­tem sup­port­ed by Malaysian author­i­ties. 

With these agree­ments, the com­pa­ny moves clos­er to its indus­tri­al vision: -

: Open­ing new mar­kets. 

: Estab­lish­ing a local pres­ence. 

: Cre­at­ing last­ing val­ue.

This increased pres­ence in South­east Asia, also unites a pre­vi­ous part­ner­ship with PhilJets. This involves 15 Let­ters of Intent (LOI) for the ATEA air­craft, along with joint efforts to rede­fine the future of region­al mobil­i­ty in the Philip­pines.

For more infor­ma­tion

www.ascendance-ft.com

www.penaviation.com

(Top image: Sign­ing of the agree­ments)

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