LYTE Aviation Appoints Former Etihad CEO James Hogan as Strategic Advisor

UK-based LYTE Avi­a­tion has appoint­ed for­mer Eti­had Air­ways chief exec­u­tive James Hogan AO as a strate­gic advi­sor, as the com­pa­ny pre­pares for the next phase of devel­op­ment of its high-capac­i­ty hybrid-elec­tric ver­ti­cal take-off and land­ing (eVTOL) air­craft.

Hogan, prin­ci­pal of invest­ment and advi­so­ry firm Group Van­guard Hold­ings, brings more than four decades of expe­ri­ence across avi­a­tion, trav­el and hos­pi­tal­i­ty. He served as pres­i­dent and CEO of Eti­had Air­ways from 2006 to 2017, over­see­ing its inter­na­tion­al expan­sion, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly held senior roles at Gulf Air, BMI, Forte Hotels and Hertz.

In his new role, Hogan is expect­ed to advise LYTE on its long-term strat­e­gy, com­mer­cial posi­tion­ing and growth. The appoint­ment comes as the com­pa­ny works to advance its air­craft pro­gramme towards poten­tial oper­a­tions with­in the next decade. LYTE founder and chief exec­u­tive Fresh­ta Farzam said Hogan’s expe­ri­ence would sup­port the com­pa­ny as it builds the foun­da­tions for its next devel­op­ment phase.

LYTE is devel­op­ing three air­craft aimed at pas­sen­ger trans­port, car­go logis­tics and med­ical appli­ca­tions. Its flag­ship Sky­Bus is a pro­posed 40-seat hybrid-elec­tric air­craft with a tar­get range of 1,000km. The SkyTruck is designed for car­go oper­a­tions, with a stat­ed pay­load capac­i­ty of 4.5 tonnes, while the Sky­Clin­ic is a con­cept for an air­borne med­ical facil­i­ty intend­ed to sup­port sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dures on board.

The com­pa­ny is also devel­op­ing a 2.5MW dual-fuel propul­sion sys­tem intend­ed to sup­port the per­for­mance and range objec­tives of its air­craft. LYTE said it had com­plet­ed a dig­i­tal twin of the Sky­Bus and was prepar­ing for the next stage of devel­op­ment. It did not pro­vide a time­line for pro­to­type flight test­ing or cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in the announce­ment.

Unlike many eVTOL devel­op­ers focused on small­er air-taxi air­craft, LYTE is tar­get­ing high­er-capac­i­ty region­al trans­port and spe­cialised appli­ca­tions. Its pro­posed designs would require progress across air­craft devel­op­ment, propul­sion inte­gra­tion and reg­u­la­to­ry cer­ti­fi­ca­tion before enter­ing com­mer­cial ser­vice.

The com­pa­ny reports that it has secured 33 pre-orders with a stat­ed val­ue of €1.4bn, includ­ing 10 con­di­tion­al pur­chase agree­ments val­ued at €500m.

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

See Full Bio