BETA Technologies expands its electric aviation charging network throughout state of Florida

Sev­er­al air­ports across the state of Flori­da have part­nered with BETA Tech­nolo­gies to install elec­tric air­craft and vehi­cle charg­ing infra­struc­ture at their facil­i­ties.

They include Tal­la­has­see Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (TLH), Gainesville Region­al Air­port (GNV), and Bob Sikes Air­port (CEW), all of whom have brought charg­ers online in prepa­ra­tion to par­tic­i­pate in the emerg­ing elec­tric avi­a­tion indus­try. 

TLH and BETA, in part­ner­ship with Mil­lion Air, held a com­mis­sion­ing event yes­ter­day (Wednes­day), to rec­og­nize the state-wide momen­tum toward oper­a­tional­iz­ing AAM. The event fea­tured rep­re­sen­ta­tives from TLH, BETA, FDOT, Tal­la­has­see City, Unit­ed Ther­a­peu­tics, and elect­eds from the city and state.

FDOT Sec­re­tary Jared W. Per­due, P.E, said: “As Florida’s avi­a­tion indus­try is expe­ri­enc­ing tremen­dous growth to keep pace with our grow­ing pop­u­la­tion and record-break­ing num­ber of tourists, FDOT is look­ing to the future as the nation­al leader in AAM deploy­ment, which will rev­o­lu­tion­ize how we effi­cient­ly move peo­ple and goods.

“I’m grate­ful for the work of the AAM Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee who are work­ing to guide our com­mu­ni­ties, attract man­u­fac­tur­ers to Flori­da, and keep Flori­da on track to be the first state in the nation to adopt AAM as a part of our mul­ti-modal trans­porta­tion net­work.”

This elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of air­ports across the state comes amid the Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (FDOT) Avi­a­tion Office’s con­tin­ued work to release the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Land Use Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty and Site Approval Guide­book – a doc­u­ment designed for Flori­da local gov­ern­ments use in long-term Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) plan­ning.

The BETA-designed and man­u­fac­tured charg­ers are mul­ti­modal and inter­op­er­a­ble, capa­ble of pow­er­ing var­i­ous types of elec­tric air­craft as they come into ser­vice, and ground elec­tric vehi­cles today.

Each site instal­la­tion in Flori­da includes one Lev­el 3 Fast-Charg­er locat­ed inside the fence (air­side) for use by elec­tric air­craft and elec­tri­fied air­port ground vehi­cles, and one Lev­el 2 Charg­er locat­ed out­side the fence (land­side) for use by ground EVs.  

David Pol­lard, City of Tal­la­has­see Direc­tor of Avi­a­tion, said: “Tal­la­has­see Inter­na­tion­al Air­port plays a vital role in dri­ving the local econ­o­my, gen­er­at­ing an esti­mat­ed $1 bil­lion annu­al­ly. As TLH con­tin­ues to expand its impact, we are excit­ed to join the Flori­da Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion, BETA, and Mil­lion Air to intro­duce cut­ting-edge elec­tric air­craft charg­ing infra­struc­ture at the air­port.

“This inno­va­tion marks anoth­er mile­stone in our com­mit­ment to fos­ter­ing eco­nom­ic growth and enhanc­ing con­nec­tiv­i­ty to the Cap­i­tal City, paving the way for future oppor­tu­ni­ties and sus­tain­able advance­ments.”

Gary Buchanan, Mil­lion Air’s Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent, added: “For forty years, we at Mil­lion Air, nev­er sit back and watch inno­va­tion. We are always lean­ing in and push­ing the enve­lope of devel­op­ment in ser­vices for our cus­tomers, our indus­try, and our envi­ron­ment.

“One of the great­est attrib­ut­es of great cus­tomer ser­vice is the antic­i­pa­tion of needs. In work­ing with the team at Beta and here at the Tal­la­has­see Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, along with the City of Tal­la­has­see, in the great state of Flori­da, we are tru­ly set­ting the future in motion. Today we are advanc­ing our indus­try with the infra­struc­ture of tomor­row.”

These three join a grow­ing net­work of BETA charg­ers – which are UL-cer­ti­fied and com­pli­ant to indus­try stan­dards. The com­pa­ny has brought more than 30 charg­ers online along the East, West, and Gulf Coasts, and they have been pur­chased by numer­ous indus­try play­ers includ­ing Archer Avi­a­tion, Atlantic Avi­a­tion, Sig­na­ture Avi­a­tion, AvFlight, and the Depart­ment of Defense.

BETA says it will con­tin­ue to bring addi­tion­al site loca­tions online – with­in and out­side of Flori­da – in part­ner­ship with air­ports, FBOs, and OEM part­ners across the coun­try. These sites will bring elec­tric avi­a­tion to both met­ro­pol­i­tan areas as well as rur­al and hard-to-reach com­mu­ni­ties with lim­it­ed access to air trans­porta­tion.  

Blain New­ton, Beta’s Chief Oper­a­tions Offi­cer, said: “Elec­tric avi­a­tion presents a huge oppor­tu­ni­ty to trans­form the indus­try by mak­ing it more cost-effec­tive, and grow­ing a new job mar­ket.

“The reli­a­bil­i­ty of elec­tric avi­a­tion will be a game chang­er when it comes to things like pro­vid­ing access to health­care and con­nect­ing com­mu­ni­ties across the state and beyond. We are grate­ful for FDOT’s sup­port, and the part­ner­ship of air­ports like Tal­la­has­see, Gainesville, and Bob Sikes in tak­ing this step toward the future.” 

BETA con­tin­ues to progress its all-elec­tric air­craft – the A250 ALIA VTOL and the CX300 ALIA CTOL – toward cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, antic­i­pat­ing entry into ser­vice in 2025 and 2026, respec­tive­ly.

The com­pa­ny opened the doors to a 188,500 sq ft air­craft pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty in Ver­mont, where it is begin­ning to man­u­fac­ture air­craft for deliv­ery to its grow­ing base of cus­tomers. They com­prise glob­al oper­a­tors across car­go and logis­tics, med­ical, defense, and pas­sen­ger appli­ca­tions, includ­ing UPS, Air New Zealand, Unit­ed Ther­a­peu­tics, Bris­tow, Blade, LCI, Heli­jet, and the U.S. Depart­ment of Defense. 

It’s esti­mat­ed that the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) mar­ket in the U.S. will reach $115 bil­lion per year by 2035, and cre­ate more than 280,000 high-pay­ing jobs. 

In addi­tion to eco­nom­ic stim­u­la­tion, AAM is poised to unlock greater health­care access and increased med­ical trans­port for patients and car­go, as one third of the U.S. geog­ra­phy is with­in 15–20 min­utes of an aer­i­al response.