Stuttgart joins Lilium’s planned regional network for southern Germany, which also includes hubs in Munich and Nuremberg

Stuttgart Air­port is expect­ed to become a hub for region­al elec­tric flights with zero oper­at­ing emis­sions after announc­ing an agree­ment with Ger­man eVTOL air­craft start­up Lil­i­um.

The hub is join­ing the planned south­ern Ger­man net­work, which already con­sists of Munich and Nurem­berg air­ports. This lat­est announce­ment adds to the news ear­li­er this year that Lil­i­um has planned west­ern Ger­man hubs with Cologne/Bonn and Düs­sel­dorf air­ports and a planned net­work of 14 loca­tions in Flori­da (USA), with the first pas­sen­ger flights pro­ject­ed to take place from 2024.

Lil­i­um CEO Daniel Wie­gand, said: “I am thrilled that my home of Baden-Würt­tem­berg is join­ing the south­ern Ger­man Lil­i­um oper­at­ing net­work. Ful­ly-elec­tric and ultra-qui­et Lil­i­um Jets will con­nect pas­sen­gers from Stuttgart, Munich and Nurem­berg more close­ly with neigh­bour­ing cities and regions. Sus­tain­able trav­el and time sav­ings for all trav­ellers is part of our mis­sion. We see that as the key to trans­form­ing mobil­i­ty.”

Togeth­er with the future land­ing site oper­a­tors, Lil­i­um has car­ried out a num­ber of spe­cif­ic stud­ies in recent years on issues in regards to loca­tion choice, infra­struc­ture and air­space inte­gra­tion, includ­ing use cas­es and routes, to con­firm the fea­si­bil­i­ty of region­al air traf­fic with eVTOL air­crafts.

The aim is to offer ful­ly-elec­tric con­nec­tions with­in a few years, with up to six pas­sen­gers being able to trav­el between the hubs on each Lil­i­um Jet. Tick­et prices are expect­ed to be com­pa­ra­ble to con­ven­tion­al means of trans­port in the medi­um term.

Dr. Ari­na Fre­itag, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of Flughafen Stuttgart GmbH, said: “We want peo­ple in our region to get to their des­ti­na­tions in the best pos­si­ble way and to have a wide choice of modes of trans­port. That is why we are devel­op­ing Stuttgart Air­port into a unique hub for sus­tain­able and inno­v­a­tive forms of mobil­i­ty.

“The region­al and supra-region­al high-speed con­nec­tions with small elec­tric air­craft, such as those planned by Lil­i­um, are a very promis­ing addi­tion to the Stuttgart loca­tion.“

Dr. Flo­ri­an Stegmann, Min­is­ter of State and Head of the State Chan­cellery of the State of Baden-Würt­tem­berg, added: “The State of Baden-Würt­tem­berg sup­ports the project to bet­ter con­nect south­ern Ger­man loca­tions such as Stuttgart Air­port through a new elec­tric jet mobil­i­ty net­work. We see the oppor­tu­ni­ties that such mod­ern mobil­i­ty con­cepts can bring for our coun­try. What is cer­tain is that fly­ing in the future must be cli­mate-friend­ly and safe.”

The Lil­i­um Jet, which has been under devel­op­ment for sev­er­al years, will offer high-speed con­nec­tions for six pas­sen­gers and one pilot. With a pro­ject­ed max­i­mum range of 250 km and a cruise speed of 280 km/h, the air­craft has the poten­tial to become a mar­ket leader for both pas­sen­ger and car­go trans­port.

The all-elec­tric jet, which is cur­rent­ly under­go­ing con­cur­rent type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process­es with EASA and the FAA, will fly with zero oper­at­ing emis­sions. The first pas­sen­ger ser­vices are pro­ject­ed to launch in 2024 and Lil­i­um became a pub­lic com­pa­ny ear­li­er this year, and began trad­ing on the NASDAQ under the tick­er sym­bol ‘LILM’ on Sep­tem­ber 15th.

Min­is­ter of State Dr. Flo­ri­an Her­rmann, Head of the Bavar­i­an State Chan­cellery, sees great oppor­tu­ni­ties for elec­tric air mobil­i­ty. He said: “Elec­tric air shut­tles are inno­v­a­tive, envi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious and set the tone for our future. They open up com­plete­ly new ways of trav­el­ling and can enrich our mobil­i­ty with a state-of-the-art alter­na­tive. The Bavar­i­an State Gov­ern­ment there­fore sup­ports efforts to bring about elec­tric air mobil­i­ty.

“With the Air Mobil­i­ty Ini­tia­tive Bavaria as part of our Bavar­i­an high-tech agen­da, we will pro­vide €100 mil­lion in the com­ing years for research and devel­op­ment of new forms of urban air mobil­i­ty. By build­ing a net­work across trans­port sys­tems, we cre­ate great poten­tial for qui­et, emis­sion-free and fast mobil­i­ty.”

Out­side of Europe, Lil­i­um has also announced a planned strate­gic alliance with lead­ing Brazil­ian air­line Azul to build an eVTOL net­work in Brazil, expect­ed to start in 2025. This will include the sup­ply of 220 Lil­i­um Jets.