Lilium signs MoU with Lufthansa Group to jointly work on the future of Advanced Air Mobility in Europe

The Lufthansa Group and Lil­i­um have signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing to explore a strate­gic part­ner­ship on eVTOL air­craft oper­a­tions in Europe.

In a press release announced ear­li­er today (Thurs­day), the com­pa­nies want to explore inno­va­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties in avi­a­tion, dis­cussing areas such as ground and flight oper­a­tions, future air­craft main­te­nance, as well as crew­ing and flight train­ing.

In a pos­si­ble strate­gic part­ner­ship, both com­pa­nies also want to analyse the oppor­tu­ni­ties for col­lab­o­ra­tion with third par­ties like air­ports and region­al part­ners, for instance on the advance­ment of infra­struc­ture such as ver­ti­ports, air­space inte­gra­tion and the def­i­n­i­tion of required oper­a­tion process­es.

Dr. Detlef Kayser, Mem­ber of the Lufthansa Group’s Exec­u­tive Board, respon­si­ble for Fleet & Tech­nol­o­gy, said: “Inno­va­tion is part of our DNA. The Lufthansa Group aspires to be a glob­al leader in the inte­gra­tion of state-of-the-art prod­ucts and process­es. We want to devel­op avi­a­tion fur­ther and dri­ve the trans­for­ma­tion of the indus­try.

“This Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing with Lil­i­um will make an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to this. Only with inno­va­tion, courage and deter­mi­na­tion can we, as an indus­try, make avi­a­tion more sus­tain­able and mas­ter the chal­lenges of the future.”

As Lil­i­um announced this week, the com­pa­ny has begun pro­duc­tion of its Lil­i­um Jet. Accord­ing to Lilium’s inter­nal pro­jec­tions, the Euro­pean mar­ket is expect­ed to account for a demand of around 9,200 eVTOL air­craft through 2035.

Klaus Roewe, CEO of Lil­i­um, added: “We are delight­ed that the Lufthansa Group has decid­ed to coop­er­ate with us to joint­ly advance in the future of fly­ing. The Lufthansa Group has been at the fore­front of some of Europe’s most impor­tant avi­a­tion ini­tia­tives, espe­cial­ly in the area of envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty. We are thrilled to explore oppor­tu­ni­ties on bring­ing eVTOL flights to Lufthansa Group cus­tomers.”

With a cur­rent fleet of more than 700 com­mer­cial air­craft, the Lufthansa Group is pur­su­ing a long-term fleet strat­e­gy aimed at cost-effi­cien­cy and reduced emis­sions.

The Lufthansa Group’s lat­est air­craft acqui­si­tions have up to 30 per cent low­er fuel con­sump­tion and CO₂ emis­sions com­pared with pre­de­ces­sor mod­els. The Lufthansa Group aims to cut its net car­bon emis­sions in half by 2030 on its path to becom­ing car­bon-neu­tral by 2050.