LYTE Aviation has received a pre-order for 10 eVTOL aircraft from Ghenus Air for their US and Korean market with a delivery time between 5-6 years.
The pre-order follows VMAN Aviation Services’ purchase of 10 aircraft for the Indian market in November 2023.
Ghenus Air has pre ordered 20 eVTOLs from Plana, 20 UAVs from Traverse Aero, and 50 eVTOLs from Odys. Now with 10 pre-orders of the 40 seater eVTOL LA-44, the SkyBus, its cargo variant, the SkyTruck LA-44C which can carry up to 4.5 ton, and its 19 seater prime variant, the LA-44 X Prime, Ghenus Air is expanding its door-to-door market for corporate executives, families, business owners and small group tours.
“There are thousands of regional airports worldwide, most of them underutilized. In the United States, 90 percent of people live within a 30-minute drive of a regional airport, compared with 60 percent for a commercial airport. This existing capacity of underutilized airports could support a growing RAM (Regional Air Mobility) market with less investment and ramp-up time than other new modes of transport such as UAM,” said Joseph Kim, CEO of Ghenus Air.
LYTE’s SkyBus offers a range of 620 miles (1,000km) with a max speed of 190mph (300 km/hr). A full-scale prototype is being planned within 24 months, and serial production within 5-6 years.
“It is an honor for us to get so well appreciated and supported in the aviation industry. Within only 1 year, we are collaborating in over 19 cities in 4 continents and now we have received in total 20 pre orders worth, in total, €800m during the concept phase. Imagine, the 2000 pre-orders we are warming up now once we have our prototype ready,” added Freshta Farzam, CEO & Founder LYTE Aviation.
Farzam continued; “This pre-order comes at a great timing for us, as we are expanding our portfolio from not only disrupting mass transit with our 40 seater point-to-point eVTOL, the SkyBus, then the logistics industry with our SkyTruck (4.5 ton cargo), but now with the huge demand in business aviation to introduce also our 19 seater LA-44 X Prime version. We are currently designing the interiors of our prime version, varying from large meeting rooms in the sky that will take off right at your corporate’s door step, no runways required anymore, up to spacious solutions for families for a flight duration of 2-3 hours, taking off right at their home doorsteps. Not only that Ghenus Air is targeting VIP clients in Seoul and in Los Angeles, but especially, the strong ties that they have to Korean logistics and regional markets, is what led us proudly to agree to the pre orders.”
Kim added; “We see high potential in the Korean and US RAM market. In the United States, there is ample marketability for regional air service utilizing underutilized regional airports. And since Korea is pursuing a hydrogen economy, the use of hydrogen-based Skybus and Skytruck is expected to not only be symbolic but also make a significant contribution to improving the profitability of local airports that are suffering huge losses. In this regard, we are deeply grateful that we have the great opportunity of purchasing Lyte Aviation’s hybrid-hydrogen SkyBus, SkyTruck and their LA-44 X Prime version and to establish new routes between existing regional airports and new vertiports.”
