Eve Air Mobility collaborates with Fly Blade India to introduce air taxis
- ByStartupStory | September 27, 2022
According to reports, Eve Air Mobility (EAM), a subsidiary of Brazilian aerospace giant Embraer, has partnered with Fly Blade India, a company located in Gurugram, to deliver air taxis to the nation within the next five years.
The urban air transportation provider and Fly Blade have agreed to share up to 2 million flight hours each year. As a consequence, EAM will use Blade’s 200 air taxis, each of which costs an estimated $3 million. They will spend one thousand flying hours per year in this area.
Eve Air Mobility’s co-CEO André Duarte Stein told ToI on Monday that India is exceptionally important for UAM, and that deliveries here would take place within weeks or months of when they commence service in 2026. Stein has extensive experience working in India and has a deep familiarity with the nation. In March of this year, United Airlines, the largest airline in the United States, announced a $15 million investment in EAM and a conditional purchase deal for hundreds of electric aircraft with seating for four.
“Initially ou eVTOL will be piloted, with a seating capacity for four passengers and cargo space, a must for airport service. They will weigh about 2.5 to 3 tonnes in which batteries will account for a quarter of this weight, it will have a maximum take-off weight equivalent to a chopper and have a flying range of 100 km,” said Andre Duarte Stein, co-CEO, EAM. He also told that India is the most important market for urban air transportation and that in the next phase of development, EAM intends to introduce six-seater autonomous air taxis that would operate without a pilot.
“We expect Eve air taxis to start flying commercially by 2026 and India will be among the first countries to get them. We are very proud to bring this service to India in 2026 or shortly thereafter and our groundwork for creating the infra will begin immediately,” said Fly Blade India MD Amit Dutta, in a statement.
Initially, EAM’s air taxi will be flown by a single pilot and have room for four passengers and goods. The co-CEO informed that the aircraft will have a range of 100 kilometers, a maximum take-off weight comparable to that of a helicopter, and a weight of 2.5 to 3 tons. He pointed out that Bengaluru might use up to 300 eVTOLs for transportation between the city center and the airport and neighboring regions. After “taking learning experiences from the piloted ones and by which time customers would have the confidence to enter into an unmanned eVTOL,” the manufacturer of air taxis plans to release autonomous air taxis without pilots that can carry six people.
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