Surf Air Mobility, Hawaii Department of Transportation and BETA Technologies to Advance Electric Aviation in Hawaii with eIPP Application

Surf Air Mobil­i­ty has part­nered with the Hawaii Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion and BETA Tech­nolo­gies on the request for pro­pos­al appli­ca­tion for the Elec­tric Ver­ti­cal Take­off and Land­ing Inte­gra­tion Pilot Pro­gram (eIPP).

The com­pa­ny believes its exist­ing oper­a­tional foot­print in Hawaii is an ide­al launch mar­ket for Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty. Its air­line sub­sidiary, Mokulele Air­lines, is the largest com­muter air­line in Hawaii by sched­uled depar­tures, pro­vid­ing high-fre­quen­cy inter­is­land ser­vice across 10 routes and nine des­ti­na­tions.

With estab­lished air­port oper­a­tions, main­te­nance facil­i­ties and crew based across Hawaii, Surf Air Mobil­i­ty says it has built the foun­da­tion to safe­ly and effi­cient­ly inte­grate elec­tric air­craft into exist­ing com­mer­cial air­line ser­vice, an approach that aligns direct­ly with the eIPP Request for Pro­pos­al’s objec­tives.

Dean­na White, CEO of Surf Air Mobil­i­ty, said: “As Hawaii’s largest com­muter air­line fly­ing approx­i­mate­ly 100 flights dai­ly, we under­stand the routes and oper­a­tional real­i­ties.

“Our infra­struc­ture is per­fect­ly suit­ed to intro­duce next-gen­er­a­tion air­craft. Par­tic­i­pat­ing in the eIPP ini­tia­tive with BETA would sup­port Hawaii’s lead­er­ship in advanced air mobil­i­ty while deliv­er­ing qui­eter, low­er-emis­sion trans­porta­tion for com­mu­ni­ties and vis­i­tors.”

Mokulele Air­lines Oper­a­tional High­lights:

• Oper­ates the largest air­line net­work in Hawaii by air­ports served and has the most sched­uled depar­tures among com­muter air­lines in Hawaii
• Has oper­at­ed, in aggre­gate, tens of mil­lions of rev­enue pas­sen­ger miles with proven inter­is­land exper­tise
• Flew approx­i­mate­ly 36,000 flights in 2025, with an aver­age flight length of 51 miles, an ide­al length for the first gen­er­a­tion of elec­tri­fied air­craft
• Flew approx­i­mate­ly 224,000 pas­sen­gers in 2025, serv­ing a high per­cent­age of repeat and local fliers
• Achieved 96% con­trol­lable com­ple­tion fac­tor¹
• Employs 196 peo­ple in Hawaii, includ­ing 96 pilots
• Main­tains a strong safe­ty record and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion under FAA Part 135 oper­a­tions
• Has three main­te­nance cen­ters locat­ed in Hon­olu­lu (HNL), Kahu­lui (OGG), and Kona (KOA)
• Pro­vides Essen­tial Air Ser­vice con­nect­ing under­served island com­mu­ni­ties
• Has inter­line agree­ments with major com­mer­cial air­lines, includ­ing: Hawai­ian, Alas­ka, Amer­i­can, Unit­ed, and Japan Air­lines

In coor­di­na­tion with HDOT and BETA, Surf Air Mobil­i­ty would bring togeth­er its air­line oper­a­tions, safe­ty cul­ture, Sur­fOS soft­ware, and com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tiv­i­ty togeth­er with BETA’s elec­tric air­craft tech­nol­o­gy, mak­ing it an ide­al can­di­date for the eIPP ini­tia­tive.

BETA’s ALIA elec­tric air­craft, designed for short-haul routes like those flown dai­ly by Mokulele Air­lines, cre­at­ing a prac­ti­cal path­way for elec­tri­fi­ca­tion with­in Hawaii’s exist­ing air trans­porta­tion sys­tem. The enti­ties ini­tial­ly plan to con­duct car­go-car­ry­ing mis­sions between Mokulele’s exist­ing route pairs.

BETA’s elec­tric air­craft, ALIA, has flown more than 100,000 nau­ti­cal miles in real-world oper­a­tions, gen­er­at­ing oper­a­tional data that sup­ports a dis­ci­plined cer­ti­fi­ca­tion-aligned roadmap.

Kris­ten Costel­lo, Head of Gov­ern­ment and Reg­u­la­to­ry Affairs at BETA Tech­nolo­gies, said “Hawaii is exact­ly the kind of oper­at­ing envi­ron­ment elec­tric avi­a­tion was built to serve. Short, high-fre­quen­cy routes, strong com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tiv­i­ty, and a real need for reli­able, afford­able inter­is­land ser­vice make this a nat­ur­al ear­ly mar­ket for elec­tri­fi­ca­tion.

“Work­ing with Surf Air Mobil­i­ty and HDOT through the eIPP allows us to demon­strate how elec­tric air­craft can improve access, low­er oper­at­ing costs, and inte­grate safe­ly into exist­ing air­line oper­a­tions, and deliv­er real ben­e­fits to com­mu­ni­ties from day one.”

Surf Air Mobil­i­ty is a Los Ange­les-based air mobil­i­ty plat­form. With its AI-enabled Sur­fOS^TM soft­ware and elec­tri­fi­ca­tion pro­grams, Surf Air Mobil­i­ty pro­vides tech­nol­o­gy designed to sup­port the mod­ern­iza­tion of air oper­a­tions and the adop­tion of next-gen­er­a­tion air­craft.

The Com­pa­ny cur­rent­ly oper­ates one of the largest com­muter air­lines in the Unit­ed States by sched­uled depar­tures, which pro­vides oper­a­tional scale and real-world oper­at­ing data to val­i­date and deploy its soft­ware. Togeth­er, these capa­bil­i­ties posi­tion Surf Air Mobil­i­ty as a leader shap­ing a more effi­cient, con­nect­ed, and acces­si­ble future for avi­a­tion.

If select­ed, the eIPP ini­tia­tive would sup­port addi­tion­al infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment, oper­a­tional readi­ness, and ear­ly deploy­ment of elec­tric air­craft in Hawaii, fur­ther advanc­ing AAM through real-world air­line oper­a­tions.

Ed Snif­f­en, Hawaii Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Direc­tor, added: “The eIPP ini­tia­tive would pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for Hawaii to be at the fore­front of advanced avi­a­tion mobil­i­ty tech­nol­o­gy, while sup­port­ing the Hawaii Depart­ment of Transportation’s long-term efforts to devel­op effi­cient, afford­able, and renew­able alter­na­tive forms of inter­is­land trans­porta­tion.”

¹ Oper­a­tional data from Feb­ru­ary 1, 2025 to Jan­u­ary 2026 MTD