Irish-headquartered aircraft leasing company Avolon has announced that leading Turkish aviation conglomerate Gözen Holding has agreed to purchase or lease up to 50 of its VX4 eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft, with the option to purchase or lease 50 more.
With the deal, Avolon has now placed its entire aircraft order book of 500 aircrafts following previous orders from the likes of Japan Airlines, Air Asia and Air Greenland.
Avolon ordered the 500 planes, which can take off and land vertically, from New York-listed Vertical Aerospace last June. The aircraft seats five, including the pilot, and is designed for short journeys with a top speed of 200mph and a range of around 100miles.
Vertical claims the aircraft has zero operating emissions and is silent in flight, although commercial services are unlikely to begin until 2024 at the earliest. The company has a total pre-order book of 1,350 VX4 to date.
Avolon, which has a fleet of 824 aircraft was at the front of the queue for the VX4, ordering its 500 planes alongside the likes of American Airlines, Bristow and Iberojet, with Virgin Atlantic and Marubeni also making conditional pre-orders.
In Association with
Avalon and Gözen will also form a strategic partnership to commercialise eVTOL travel, develop an urban air mobility (UAM) platform in Turkey and collaborate in a working group to identify local partners, research potential market opportunities as well as infrastructure and certification requirements for UAM.
"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," Dómhnal Slattery, CEO of Avolon, said.
"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.”
Mekin Gözen, CEO of Gözen Holding, commented: "We are delighted to announce our partnership and VX4 order with Avolon.
"As an integral part of the Turkish aviation industry, we feel it is incumbent upon us to be at the forefront of the sustainability movement and that is why we identified Avolon, and Vertical’s VX4, as the zero-emissions eVTOL aircraft that will revolutionise air travel.
Gözen went onto say that the V4X could "dramatically reshape Istanbul," delivering sustainable air travel to the region while helping to alleviate congestion and long distances between the city and the airport while offering an alternative to its packed ferries and city boats.
Avolon is jointly owned by a subsidiary of Shenzhen-listed Bohai Leasing and US-Japanese company ORIX Aviation Systems. Its most recently available accounts for 2018 show revenues in excess of $1bn and operating profits of $561m, but a total loss for the year of $23.1m.
(Pic: Avolon)
