East African operators Safarilink and Yellow Wings Air Services have agreed to convert their Cessna Caravan turboprop singles to the electric propulsion system being developed by Surf Air Mobility and partners.
In a pair of memorandums of understanding announced today, the companies did not commit to buying a specific amount of the conversions, but each currently operates between four and 15 Caravans.
U.S.-based Surf Air intends to be the launch customer for the conversion package, for which it is working to gain an FAA supplemental type certificate (STC). It plans to offer both hybrid-electric and all-electric powertrains, with the latter expected to deliver operating cost savings of between 40 and 50 percent compared with the original aircraft, as well as eliminating carbon dioxide emissions.
To date, Surf Air has been working with electric motor developer MagniX, as well as systems integrator AeroTec. However, it has yet to confirm the supplier for the motor and expects to name two prospective partners in the coming months.
Kenya-based Yellow Wings provides charter flights to more than 500 airfields across East Africa. Safarilink operates scheduled domestic services in both Tanzania and Kenya.
Both prospective customers for the electric Caravan conversion indicated that environmental considerations are strong factors in their decision to partner with Surf Air. Concerns over carbon emissions from high-end tourism are just one facet of the move to decarbonizing flights in developing world markets.
“We are committed to doing everything possible to preserve the natural beauty of the countries we operate in,” said Safarilink CEO Alex Avedi. “Implementing Surf Air Mobility’s electric powertrain technology will help us reduce the noise and minimize the climate impact of our flights as we help people from all over the world to experience our region’s incredible ecosystem.”
In Kenya, the government has committed to replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources as early as 2030. “We strongly believe in alternative propulsion for air travel,” Yellow Wings CEO Christian Strebel said. “We have always been the frontrunners in adopting new systems and innovations. Kenya, with 91 percent carbon-free power generation, is the ideal country to spearhead this movement.”
According to Surf Air Mobility CEO Stan Little, electric propulsion will lay the economic foundations for what he expects to be a resurgence in short-haul air travel. The company anticipates the all-electric version of the Caravan will operate on sectors of up to roughly 100 miles, which it says is comparable to around 30 percent of current commercial flights with the type.
Under an agreement in place with Textron, Surf Air Mobility has placed orders for 100 new Caravans, with options for another 50. It plans to start adding these aircraft to its 50-strong fleet from April at an anticipated delivery rate of 20 Caravans per year. Textron has plans to install the electric propulsion system on subsequent new-build Caravans.
“We want to deploy as many Caravans as possible today to be ready for the conversion to electric [propulsion] and start opening up additional markets,” Little told AIN. For instance, Surf Air has agreed to begin flights to Purdue University outside Chicago, which hasn’t had commercial service for more than two decades; the university is underwriting and subsidizing the operation.
The operator sees other opportunities, such as providing new connections between Los Angeles and San Diego using smaller airports. Little said numerous other communities could benefit from the operating economics of electric Caravans, using airports that are “too small for a [Boeing] 737 but too big not to have air service.”
Surf Air is not publicly announcing a timeline for getting the STC and starting conversions, but Little suggested that, with an already-certified airframe, it has a smoother path to market than rival start-ups working on clean-sheet designs. Several European companies, including Heart Aerospace, Aura Aero, and Maeve, are working on new hybrid-electric regional airliners, and in the U.S., Eviation is developing an all-electric, nine-passenger aircraft called the Alice.
Within the next eight to 12 months, Surf Air expects to be ready to announce pricing for the powerplant conversion. Fred Reid, the company’s global head of business development, suggested that the anticipated cost of below $1 million will seem good value in the context of mandatory overhauls of existing Pratt & Whitney PT6A engines that can involve an outlay by operators of between $400,000 and $700,000. He added that acquisition costs for new Caravan aircraft are markedly lower than anticipated prices for new in-development sub-regional airliners.
According to Reid, Africa, Asia, and South America are all regions rich in opportunities for new regional air services based on electric propulsion. He said that in countries like Kenya and Tanzania, where Safrilink and Yellow Wings operate, limited ground infrastructure—combined with economic and environmental pressures—will be strong drivers of demand for solutions like electric Caravans. Surf Air also has a fleet conversion agreement in place with Brazilian airline Azul.
Surf Air intends to provide the converted aircraft via a network of local MRO providers. It feels that supply chain backlogs will make it slower to bring the hybrid-electric propulsion option to market than the all-electric option. Reid predicted that between 2027 and 2035, demand for electric aircraft will outstrip supply in a trend that will reward early adopters of the technology.
In July 2023, Los Angeles-based Surf Air Mobility achieved a listing on the New York Stock Exchange after completing a merger with regional carrier Southern Airways Express. Through a share subscription arrangement with financial group GEM, the company has access to at least $100 million in funding, with a further $300 million potentially available in subsequent tranches.
According to Little, so far it has only drawn on around $9.3 million of this funding to advance its plans for the electric Caravan aircraft. In 2022, Surf Air generated pro forma revenues of just over $100 million and, based on its recent third-quarter results, appears to be on track to exceed this amount for 2023.
Many of the air services provided by the Surf Air flight booking platform are provided by other carriers, with some 200 operators having supported its business in 2023. The company has also committed to adding Regent’s wing-in-ground-effect seaglider to its fleet for coastal services in Hawaii, Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean.
