Ryan Air purchases BETA Technologies’ CTOL aircraft to increase air cargo transport to rural communities in Alaska  

Ryan Air has announced a deposit-backed order for elec­tric air­craft from BETA Tech­nolo­gies — as well as the deploy­ment of BETA Charge Cubes — to enable oper­a­tions of car­go oper­a­tions through­out Alas­ka.

Ryan Air is among the pri­ma­ry oper­a­tors in the US state’s avi­a­tion sec­tor, where 85 per cent of com­mu­ni­ties are not acces­si­ble by road, which means that one in eleven Alaskans depend on air, water, or snow­mo­bile trans­porta­tion to access sup­plies and ser­vices.

In a press release issued ear­li­er this week, Ryan Air says BETA’s ALIA CTOL air­craft is unique­ly opti­mized for the types of crit­i­cal, region­al trans­port it con­ducts.

The air­craft can car­ry up to 1,250 pounds of car­go or five pas­sen­gers, mak­ing it ide­al for trans­port­ing med­ical sup­plies, food, and oth­er crit­i­cal goods to remote areas. ALIA’s range, effi­cien­cy, and low oper­at­ing costs will sup­port Ryan Air’s growth, while reduc­ing emis­sions and improv­ing ser­vice reli­a­bil­i­ty.  

Lee Ryan, Pres­i­dent of Ryan Air, said: “Ryan Air’s mis­sion has always been to raise the qual­i­ty of life for the peo­ple we serve. For more than a cen­tu­ry, our fam­i­ly has been involved in car­ry­ing the mail, and since 1953 we have oper­at­ed air­craft to con­nect Alaska’s most remote com­mu­ni­ties.

“From the dog team era to the jet age, from visu­al nav­i­ga­tion and LORAN to NextGen ADS‑B and GPS, we’ve embraced each wave of progress to bet­ter serve our state. Now, as we enter the advanced air mobil­i­ty era with BETA, we are excit­ed to con­tin­ue that tra­di­tion — deliv­er­ing safe­ty, inno­va­tion, and effi­cient tech­nol­o­gy to Alas­ka and beyond.” 

In addi­tion to deliv­er­ing air­craft, BETA will install up to 10 of its mul­ti­modal, inter­op­er­a­ble Charge Cubes across Ryan Air’s net­work.

These charg­ers are mul­ti­modal and inter­op­er­a­ble, sup­port­ing a wide range of elec­tric ground and air vehi­cles — from BETA’s air­craft and oth­er elec­tric air­craft, to bus­es, trucks, and cars. Their built-in ener­gy stor­age capa­bil­i­ties enhance grid sta­bil­i­ty and improve com­mu­ni­ty access to elec­tric­i­ty.

This infra­struc­ture will enable effi­cient oper­a­tion of Ryan Air’s ALIA CTOL fleet and expand the airline’s elec­tric capa­bil­i­ties across North Amer­i­ca.  

Patrick Buck­les, BETA’s Direc­tor of Com­mer­cial Air­craft Sales, said: “When we set out to devel­op our elec­tric air­craft and charg­ers, it was with a mis­sion to cre­ate avi­a­tion tech­nolo­gies that could increase access, fill crit­i­cal needs, and solve big prob­lems.

“Ryan Air has been com­mit­ted to improv­ing the qual­i­ty of life for West­ern com­mu­ni­ties for decades, find­ing ways to reach the hard-to-reach pop­u­la­tions with an aer­i­al life­line. We are hon­ored to part­ner with them to serve Alas­ka and a grow­ing list of ter­ri­to­ries that need more sup­port to reli­ably receive crit­i­cal resources.”  

Ryan Air works with more than 200 Tribes, Alas­ka Native health, region­al, and vil­lage cor­po­ra­tions, and major cus­tomers and part­ners in the Alaskan region, includ­ing UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Ser­vice.

Spe­cial­iz­ing in Bush freight trans­porta­tion, the fam­i­ly- and native-oper­at­ed com­pa­ny oper­ates from eight hubs and serves more than 73 West­ern com­mu­ni­ties, where air ser­vice is the sole means of receiv­ing and send­ing crit­i­cal items such as food and med­ical sup­plies.  

From Point Hope to Plat­inum, Gam­bell to Holy Cross, Ryan Air cov­ers a ser­vice area larg­er than the U.S. west coast, dai­ly. 

BETA’s air­craft are engi­neered for all-weath­er per­for­mance and have been test­ed to oper­ate reli­ably in a wide range of envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions. The air­craft will also be IFR and FIKI capa­ble, increas­ing oper­a­tional flex­i­bil­i­ty and enabling more con­sis­tent ser­vice in areas fre­quent­ly affect­ed by chal­leng­ing weath­er.

In addi­tion to per­for­mance, ALIA’s elec­tric propul­sion sys­tem offers a sig­nif­i­cant­ly qui­eter sound pro­file than con­ven­tion­al air­craft, reduc­ing envi­ron­men­tal dis­tur­bance for the com­mu­ni­ties it serves.  

Ryan added: “One of the excit­ing aspects of elec­tric avi­a­tion is that the ALIA’s bat­ter­ies can be repur­posed at the end of their fly­ing life, cre­at­ing sec­ond-life appli­ca­tions that sup­port rur­al Alas­ka.

“In many of the com­mu­ni­ties we serve, diesel gen­er­a­tors remain the only pow­er source, lim­it­ing growth and sta­bil­i­ty. By lever­ag­ing BETA’s bat­tery tech­nol­o­gy and infra­struc­ture, Ryan Air — togeth­er with local part­ners — can help bring greater ener­gy reli­a­bil­i­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty to even the most remote parts of our state.”