Vertical Aerospace (Vertical) notes Avolon’s announcement that it has exceeded its whole 500 unit pre-order of Vertical’s VX4 electric aircraft within nine months. Avolon, the world’s second largest aircraft lessor, pre-ordered 500 VX4s in June 2021, and as of today has placed all of these units, as well as an additional 50 aircraft options, with leading global airlines.
This has been achieved by placing aircraft with flag carriers and innovative airlines such as JAL, AirAsia and Brazil’s largest airline Gol, in addition to today’s announcement with leading Turkish aviation group, Gözen Holding, for up to 100 VX4 eVTOL aircraft. Avolon’s success in placing 550 VX4s in under a year emphasises the high demand for the aircraft and displays the significant growth in market appetite for eVTOLs.
Vertical has sold its VX4 aircraft directly to a broad range of customers including aircraft lessors, airlines, helicopter operators and tourism groups. The global reach achieved through Vertical’s conditional pre-orders for its VX4 means it has the largest pre-order book by value in the eVTOL market for $5.4bn, and together with Avolon’s placements means that the VX4 will fly in the US, UK, Japan, Brazil, Turkey, Greenland, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean.
Avolon exceeding its VX4 pre-orders marks a significant milestone in its partnership with Vertical and further reflects Avolon’s confidence in Vertical’s electric aircraft, which is on track to be to be flying in cities worldwide by the middle of the decade. Vertical and Avolon are collaborating with the VX4’s airline customers in Working Groups to accelerate the deployment of the VX4, as well as on eVTOL infrastructure and regional-specific certification requirements.
Together with its partners including Rolls-Royce, Honeywell and Microsoft, along with GKN, Leonardo and Solvay, Vertical is now in the later build stages of the VX4 with its full test flight program to commence later in 2022.
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Founder & CEO of Vertical said, “We are delighted that Turkey has been added to the global destinations where the VX4 will fly. We look forward to welcoming Gözen into the Vertical family and continue to celebrate our growing partnership with Avolon.”
Dómhnal Slattery, CEO of Avolon commented: “Today marks an important milestone on our eVTOL journey, as we have now fully placed our VX4 orderbook with some of the leading international airlines and aviation companies all over the world. The opportunities to deploy the VX4 are enormous and, as is evident with our placement progress to date, zero emissions eVTOL air travel will reshape the short-haul travel market. Our partnership with Gözen Holding will create a pioneer in UAM in Turkey, bringing sustainable air travel to the region.
The strong demand for our VX4 orderbook and for zero emissions travel, confirms our view that demand for eVTOL aircraft would always outstrip supply. As a result, we will continue working with other partners that want to purchase or lease the VX4 in order to fully size the potential market and demand for this aircraft.”