FIA 2026: Loganair inks five-strong order for BETA Technologies’ ALIA CTOL aircraft, with option for five more

Loganair will pur­chase five all-elec­tric ALIA CTOL CX300 air­craft from BETA Tech­nolo­gies, with options for five more. The agree­ment was signed today (Mon­day) on day one of this year’s Farn­bor­ough Air Show.

The UK, and Scot­land in par­tic­u­lar, is a nat­ur­al first mar­ket for com­mer­cial elec­tric flight. Across the coun­try, island and remote com­mu­ni­ties depend on short routes that road and rail can­not serve, mak­ing region­al air ser­vice crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture. Most of Loganair’s region­al sec­tors are under 100 miles, square­ly with­in the CX300’s mis­sion pro­file. The air­craft oper­ates from exist­ing run­ways and recharges in 20 to 40 min­utes using BETA’s fast-charg­ing sys­tems.

Mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant step towards bring­ing elec­tric avi­a­tion into com­mer­cial routes across the UK, the move will ensure Loganair becomes Europe’s first com­mer­cial air­line oper­at­ing an elec­tric air­craft fleet.

The agree­ment builds on the UK’s first elec­tric flight demon­stra­tion pro­gramme com­plet­ed in March, when BETA’s CTOL flew 23 flights in 10 days across Loganair’s net­work, con­nect­ing Glas­gow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inver­ness, Wick and Kirk­wall. The air­craft cov­ered more than 1,000 nau­ti­cal miles in real-world oper­a­tional con­di­tions, fly­ing routes to some of Scotland’s most remote com­mu­ni­ties and val­i­dat­ing per­for­mance, ground han­dling, charg­ing and inte­gra­tion into exist­ing air­port and air­space sys­tems, and demon­strat­ing a mod­el for short region­al routes across the UK.

Expect­ed to enter ser­vice in 2029, the air­craft will sup­port pas­sen­ger and car­go oper­a­tions across Loganair’s net­work, deliv­er­ing greater oper­a­tional flex­i­bil­i­ty with low­er oper­at­ing costs and zero in-flight emis­sions. The agree­ment also includes plans for tech­ni­cal sup­port and inte­gra­tion to ensure the air­craft can be intro­duced seam­less­ly into Loganair’s exist­ing fleet.

Luke Fara­jal­lah, chief exec­u­tive of Loganair said: “This is a tru­ly his­toric moment for Loganair and for Euro­pean avi­a­tion. Our demon­stra­tion pro­gramme ear­li­er this year proved that elec­tric avi­a­tion is no longer a future con­cept, it is a viable com­mer­cial oppor­tu­ni­ty. The air­craft demon­strat­ed the poten­tial to reduce oper­at­ing costs by up to 80% while main­tain­ing the reli­able region­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty our cus­tomers and com­mu­ni­ties depend on.

“Sign­ing this agree­ment is the nat­ur­al next step in that jour­ney. It reflects our con­fi­dence in the tech­nol­o­gy, our part­ner­ship with BETA, and our ambi­tion to remain at the fore­front of sus­tain­able region­al avi­a­tion. We look for­ward to work­ing togeth­er as we pre­pare to bring these air­craft into com­mer­cial ser­vice.”

The agree­ment rep­re­sents the next phase of Loganair’s part­ner­ship with BETA Tech­nolo­gies, mov­ing from suc­cess­ful flight demon­stra­tions to planned fleet deploy­ment as the air­line con­tin­ues to explore how elec­tric avi­a­tion can sup­port resilient, effi­cient and low­er-emis­sion region­al air ser­vices.

Kyle Clark, founder and chief exec­u­tive of BETA Tech­nolo­gies said: “Loganair has spent six decades con­nect­ing com­mu­ni­ties that rely on air trav­el, so their stan­dard for new tech­nol­o­gy is appro­pri­ate­ly high. We met that stan­dard the only way it can be met, by fly­ing more than a thou­sand nau­ti­cal miles across their net­work, on their routes, and in their con­di­tions. This agree­ment is what hap­pens when demon­strat­ed per­for­mance meets an oper­a­tor seri­ous about the future of region­al avi­a­tion.”