JSX to acquire up to 332 hybrid-electric aircraft from Electra.aero, Aura Aero and Heart Aerospace, deliveries starting from 2028

Award-win­ning air car­ri­er JSX has con­firmed its intent to acquire more than 300 hybrid-elec­tric air­craft from Elec­tra Aero, Aura Aero, and Heart Aero­space, as it looks to launch a green region­al air ser­vice in the USA from 2028.

Announc­ing the deal ear­li­er this week, JSX has said it will acquire 82 of Elec­tra’s nine-seater eSTOL air­craft, with 32 firm orders and 50 options.

Also includ­ed is an order for up to 150 of the 19-seat Aura Aero Era, with 50 firm orders and 100 options, and up to 100 of the 30-seat Heart Aero­space ES-30 with 50 firm orders and 50 options.

While com­mer­cial air­lines can serve just 480 air­ports in the USA, JSX’s small com­mu­ni­ty-friend­ly Part 135 and Part 380 Pub­lic Char­ter oper­a­tions, com­bined with the per­for­mance capa­bil­i­ties of these hybrid-elec­tric air­planes, enables ser­vice oppor­tu­ni­ties to thou­sands of fed­er­al­ly fund­ed air­ports oth­er­wise inac­ces­si­ble to peo­ple who can’t own or char­ter an entire air­craft.

Alex Wilcox, JSX CEO & Co-Founder, said: “JSX is, by far, America’s high­est rat­ed and most inno­v­a­tive air car­ri­er, and today’s order of hybrid-elec­tric air­craft exem­pli­fies our com­mit­ment to achiev­able, cus­tomer-friend­ly, car­bon-reduc­ing solu­tions that will offer the low­er costs essen­tial to pro­vid­ing vital air ser­vice to small­er com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try.

“As the net­work air­lines order ever-larg­er air­craft it is inevitable that more and more small mar­kets will be aban­doned. Elec­tra, Aura Aero, and Heart Aero­space are vision­ary orga­ni­za­tions that share in JSX’s com­mit­ment to serv­ing small­er com­mu­ni­ties, work­ing togeth­er with us to weave sus­tain­able region­al air trav­el back into the fab­ric of Amer­i­can com­merce and free­dom of move­ment.” 

With the Elec­tra eSTOL, Heart Aero­space ES-30, and Aura Aero Era, JSX says it can dra­mat­i­cal­ly low­er the cost of its ser­vice and open new flight options at over 2,000 US air­ports, stim­u­lat­ing local economies and empow­er­ing region­al mobil­i­ty and con­nec­tiv­i­ty for com­mu­ni­ties devoid of reg­u­lar air ser­vice today.

Elec­tra’s eSTOL air­craft is designed to trans­port nine pas­sen­gers or 2,500 pounds of car­go with a range of up to 500 nau­ti­cal miles. It has the abil­i­ty to take off and land in less than 150 feet at very slow speeds with bat­ter­ies that recharge in-flight, elim­i­nat­ing the need for new ground infra­struc­ture.

Electra’s eSTOL air­craft lever­ages dis­trib­uted elec­tric propul­sion and blown lift, as well as a small tur­bine-pow­ered gen­er­a­tor to dri­ve eight elec­tric motors dis­trib­uted across the wing, pro­vid­ing high lift at low air­speed and low drag at high speed. This enables the air­craft to clean­ly and qui­et­ly oper­ate clos­er to where peo­ple and car­go need to go, pro­vid­ing air con­nec­tiv­i­ty where it doesn’t exist today, includ­ing to small cities and region­al air­ports. 

Last month, the com­pa­ny com­plet­ed a world first as its hybrid eSTOL air­craft final­ly took flight in Vir­ginia and it recent­ly appoint­ed Dr. Ale­jan­dra Uran­ga and Tom Clan­cy to key lead­er­ship posi­tions.

JP Stew­art, Electra’s Vice Pres­i­dent and Gen­er­al Man­ag­er, said: “Elec­tra is thrilled to be a key part of JSX’s inno­v­a­tive vision for the future of region­al air mobil­i­ty. Our eSTOL air­craft is unique­ly posi­tioned to deliv­er on JSX’s com­mit­ment to pro­vide sus­tain­able access to small com­mu­ni­ties and large cities alike.

“As the nation’s most expe­ri­enced Part 380 oper­a­tor, JSX pro­vides a “hop-on” region­al air ser­vice that is rem­i­nis­cent of a time where fly­ing was an enjoy­able expe­ri­ence with large seats, friend­ly ser­vice, fre­quent direct flights, and low fric­tion.” 

Aura Aero’s Era is a brand-new eco-respon­si­ble air­craft capa­ble of trans­port­ing 19 pas­sen­gers or 1.9 tons of freight with a flex­i­ble seat­ing con­fig­u­ra­tion.

As a solu­tion to the decar­boniza­tion of region­al avi­a­tion, the hybrid-elec­tric Era offers a range of up to 900 nau­ti­cal miles (1,600 kilo­me­ters) in a com­fort­able, pres­surised cab­in. Using all-elec­tric propul­sion for take­off reduces the Era’s noise foot­print while min­imis­ing envi­ron­men­tal impact – a win­ning com­bi­na­tion for the plan­et, local com­mu­ni­ties, and air car­ri­ers alike.   
 
Jere­my Caus­sade, Pres­i­dent and Co-Founder of Aura Aero, said: “Aura Aero is very proud to have been select­ed by JSX, one of the US’s key sup­port­ers of region­al net­work devel­op­ment.

“Era, our low-car­bon air­craft, pro­vides the per­for­mance required for JSX to bring air con­nec­tiv­i­ty to more local com­mu­ni­ties. This agree­ment marks a new step in our devel­op­ment in the USA; we are thrilled by this new, excit­ing chal­lenge!”  

Heart Aero­space’s ES-30 is a region­al hybrid-elec­tric air­plane with a stan­dard seat­ing capac­i­ty of 30 pas­sen­gers offer­ing low emis­sions, low noise pol­lu­tion, and low oper­at­ing costs on short haul routes. The ES-30 has the flex­i­bil­i­ty to fly up to 500 miles, includ­ing 250 miles of hybrid range and up to 125 miles under full elec­tric, zero-emis­sions pow­er.

Simon Newitt, Pres­i­dent and Chief Com­mer­cial Offi­cer at Heart Aero­space, added: “We’re real­ly excit­ed to be part of JSX’s com­mit­ment toward sus­tain­able region­al air trav­el.

“The ES-30, with its com­pet­i­tive eco­nom­ics and green cre­den­tials, fits very well with JSX’s vision, and we see not only the oppor­tu­ni­ty to recon­nect many region­al routes lost over the years, but also open many more new ones. We believe this trans­for­ma­tion will be good for the con­sumer and good for the econ­o­my, as well as for the envi­ron­ment.”     

The favourable eco­nom­ics of the Aura Aero Era, Heart ES-30, and Elec­tra eSTOL can cre­ate thou­sands of new and expand­ed air trav­el options across the Unit­ed States with­out the need for gov­ern­ment sub­sidy.

Small com­mu­ni­ties like Del Rio in Texas, which lost all com­mer­cial air ser­vice since the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, is one exam­ple of many locales that stand to be recon­nect­ed to major cities in a sus­tain­able, cost-effec­tive way.  

JSX cur­rent­ly oper­ates 48 Embraer E145 fam­i­ly air­craft, each con­fig­ured to offer 30 seats, and employs over 1,200 crew mem­bers. 

From L‑R: Elec­tra’s eSTOL air­craft, Aura Aero’s Era air­craft and Heart Aero­space’s ES-30 air­craft.