Fractional aviation to go hybrid-electric with VoltAero and KinectAir

VoltAero, the French hybrid-electric aircraft project seems to be getting momentum this summer, with a stream of projects trickling in…

Soon after aircraft start rolling out of its soon-to-be-built factory in Western France, VoltaAero’s Cassio 330s will have a user base in the largest private aviation market in the world, the US. Or at least this is the plan.

While not clear who will be ultimate owners of the hybrid-electric aircraft, a deal has been announced at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh with new generation fractional aircraft operator KinectAir.

KinectAir, a US-based startup aims to decentralize air travel by using an AI-powered platform that would make light aircraft available to its members across the US (Pilatus PC-12, Cirrus SR22T and, from 2024, VoltaAero’s Cassio family aircraft), while allowing aircraft owners to earn money instead of having their flying assets standing idle. As stated in their website, KinectAir aims to bring new publics into the private aviation world.

The idea of leveraging digital platforms to connect supply and demand and optimize existing executive aviation fleets is not new. The “uberization” of executive aviation has been attempted by quite a few entrepreneurs, each with its own twist (see for example this 2015 piece I wrote for CNN on this topic), and results so far have been mixed.

In its defence one may say that market conditions and the economics of private flying are not static. Will the covid crisis push more people towards private aviation? will hybrid-electric (and ultimately all-electric aircraft) alter significantly the economics of this industry?

In any case, we get a glimpse (via the rendering that illustrates this post and the original press release) of how the Cassio 330 could look like in its setting and it looks pretty cool.