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United Airlines plans to buy 100 small electric planes for regional flights

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United Airlines and one of its regional carriers each plan to buy up to 100 small electric planes that could be used on short-haul United flights.

The 19-seat planes could be used to fly passengers up to 250 miles by the end of the decade, United said Tuesday morning.

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United’s venture fund and its partner Mesa Airlines will be investing in the company developing the plane, Sweden’s Heart Aerospace. Both airlines agreed to purchase 100 of the planes if they meet United’s specifications once developed.

A plane with just 19 seats is small for a carrier like United, especially since the airline recently announced plans to buy 270 planes in a push to swap out small regional jets for new, larger planes that customers tend to prefer. But the electric planes are a greener, more cost-effective way to handle short flights serving smaller communities, and United hopes improvements in technology will eventually make larger electric aircraft feasible.

United Airlines and one of its regional carriers each plan to buy up to 100 small electric planes that could be used on short-haul United flights. (Nam Y. Huh/AP)

“We’re getting a toehold in it,” said Michael Leskinen, United’s Vice President Corp Development and Investor Relations.

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The electric planes should also be cheaper to operate than traditional 19-seat jets, which could help bring new or additional air service to small cities where those flights would be too expensive today, Arizona-based Mesa said in a news release.



Mesa used to operate a large fleet of 19-seat planes but “practically all 19 seat aircraft have been withdrawn from commercial service” over the past 30 years because they were too costly, Mesa said.

A United Airlines airplane takes off over a plane on the runway at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. United Airlines says it's investing in a startup that hopes to build small electric-powered planes that might be flying in a few years. United made the announcement, July 13, 2021, but didn't say how much it's investing in Sweden-based Heart Aerospace. (Jeff Chiu/AP)

United and Mesa also said the electric planes would help reduce climate-changing emissions. As some consumers have grown more concerned about the environmental impact of flying, the airline industry set a target of cutting emissions in half by 2050, while United and the U.K. aviation industry said they aim to reduce net emissions to zero by that date.

Batteries don’t hold enough energy to power electric planes across the Atlantic — that would require a “quantum leap” in technology, Leskinen said. Still, the technology works well for shorter trips on smaller planes, said Heart Aerospace founder and CEO Anders Forslund.

“People didn’t stop flying 19-seaters because they couldn’t fly far enough, they couldn’t pay for the maintenance of turboprop jet motors on small planes,” Forslund said.

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The investment is United’s latest bet on new planes that are years from being ready to fly passengers but are designed to generate fewer emissions than traditional jets.

United said last month it plans to buy 15 jets from Boom Supersonic that are designed to fly twice as fast as today’s aircraft while using sustainable aviation fuel. The planes could be used to fly passengers by 2029, United said.

In a separate deal announced in February, United and Mesa announced plans to buy up to 200 small electric air taxis from electric aircraft startup Archer Aviation. The aircraft, capable of helicopter-like vertical takeoffs and landings, could be used to help customers in urban areas get to the airport.

The Heart Aerospace planes are larger and could be used on some regional routes, such as flights between O’Hare International Airport and Purdue University Airport or San Francisco International Airport and Modesto City-County Airport. The planes could begin flying by 2026, United said.

United declined to comment on the size of its investment. In total, Heart Aerospace raised $35 million in a round of funding that included United, Mesa and other investors, Forslund said.

 
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The 19-seat planes could be used to fly passengers up to 250 miles by the end of the decade

Hopefully they wouldn't be put into a holding pattern for a long delay.
I don't even want to THINK about that.
Up to 250 miles? Why bother? Lots of people in Florida will still drive over 100 -150 miles to a different airport to get better fares. Jax people drive to Orlando to get on international non stops because the Mouse has created such a demand that it's worth the 100+ mile drive, even with the mortal fear of driving on I-4.
Tallahassee folks drive to Jax all the time - 167 miles.

The technology would have to get 100x better before I'd even go near one of those planes.
 
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I don't even want to THINK about that.
Up to 250 miles? Why bother? Lots of people in Florida will still drive over 100 -150 miles to a different airport to get better fares.
The point here is these planes will be far cheaper to operate, and thus the fares will be far lower than for other forms of transportation, with the speed of a flight.

Distance from CID to either MSP or ORD is about 250 miles, which would be perfect for this type of transit.
 
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19 people? 250 mile range ?

United is just beating their chest publicly to impress the tree huggers.

if that is all the planes can do nobody is going to buy them. FFA likely has safety measures put in place where you can’t fly the max range incase of emergency’s or delays.

anybody want to fly 200 miles on a gas plane where it will crash at 250 miles?
 
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It takes about three and one-half hours to drive 250 miles at highway speeds.

If you factor in the drive to the airport, the check-in and security BS, the chance the flight will be delayed, and the time it takes to exit the plane, get luggage, get the rental car or taxi or Uber, I don't see how this saves any time.

I would also imagine these don't fly as fast as a traditional jet airplane.
 
It takes about three and one-half hours to drive 250 miles at highway speeds.

If you factor in the drive to the airport, the check-in and security BS, the chance the flight will be delayed, and the time it takes to exit the plane, get luggage, get the rental car or taxi or Uber, I don't see how this saves any time.

I would also imagine these don't fly as fast as a traditional jet airplane.

Again: these are for regional connecting flights.

You're actually comparing a 1 hr layover for a connecting flight to 3+ hrs of driving.
 
Again: these are for regional connecting flights.

You're actually comparing a 1 hr layover for a connecting flight to 3+ hrs of driving.
It’s 234 nautical miles between Waterloo and ohare. If you have to circle airport one time, sorry everybody is dead.

this isn’t happening with the current plane specs.
 
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I had to take a 12 seat puddle jumper from Madison to Chicago once. The wind in Chicago was so bad the pilot had to struggle to keep the nose down so we could land. NO WAY do I get on a little plane ever again. I freaked out when I got on a 40 seater from Atlanta to Myrtle Beach.
 
Yes and 250 gets you jack shit. Fort Dodge to Des Moines with safety margins in place. Oh boy.

250 rating includes the safety margins.

Both MSP and ORD probably meet that criteria for regional routes. Again, depends on specifics, and those planes may not fly if conditions are worst-case, but they'd be fine for most of the time.
 
Congrats. You have managed to become today's "foil" by which Joe shares his expertise on yet another subject. I almost feel sorry for you.

Then go look up the distances from ORD and MSP to CID, yourself.
Google can help you.
 
I don't think I would be bothered getting on an electric plane but 250 miles isn't long enough to make flying worthwhile in my book. That's a 4 to 5 hour drive no stops. With the hassle of getting to the airport early enough to go through security and make your flight than the flight you are looking at spending probably 3 hours.

Than you land and you need a car which you would have to rent.

You going to spend all that money just to save an hour or 2 of drive time???
 
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Then go look up the distances from ORD and MSP to CID, yourself.
Google can help you.
Current FAA rules require a minimum of 00:45 extra fuel for a perfect weather condition day and no anticipated delays. You average MSP-CID flight or ORD-CID is probably running more with 350 miles in the tank. These things are going to be worthless piles of junk with no purpose. The Mesa CEO is on the board of this company, it's a PR ploy for Mesa/United/Heart.

On crap weather days, good ****ing luck. You need the range to fly to the destination airport, the next suitable alternate airport (sometimes further than the original takeoff airport) and still 00:45 after that. Not going to work. I would buy one for myself but would never trust an airline to operate these with the right safety margins. Unless they offer free shuttle service when you touch down on some highway in the middle of no where.
 
Current FAA rules require a minimum of 00:45 extra fuel for a perfect weather condition day and no anticipated delays. You average MSP-CID flight or ORD-CID is probably running more with 350 miles in the tank. These things are going to be worthless piles of junk with no purpose. The Mesa CEO is on the board of this company, it's a PR ploy for Mesa/United/Heart.

On crap weather days, good ****ing luck. You need the range to fly to the destination airport, the next suitable alternate airport (sometimes further than the original takeoff airport) and still 00:45 after that. Not going to work. I would buy one for myself but would never trust an airline to operate these with the right safety margins. Unless they offer free shuttle service when you touch down on some highway in the middle of no where.
It will ultimately depend on the equivalent ETOPS rating the planes get.

With them being designed now, by the time they are built, battery tech will be improved enough that those ranges could easily double.
 
It will ultimately depend on the equivalent ETOPS rating the planes get.

With them being designed now, by the time they are built, battery tech will be improved enough that those ranges could easily double.
Time to find a new CEO.

let me sign the dotted line on hundreds of millions of dollars and just assume what I get is better than the shit I was just promised.
 
It will ultimately depend on the equivalent ETOPS rating the planes get.

With them being designed now, by the time they are built, battery tech will be improved enough that those ranges could easily double.
Yes, the range is just a start. I'm not knocking the tech/the idea/the plan, just this PR statement. This plane will never see a revenue flight. ETOPS is a whole separate thing, that is regarding extended overwater flying and emergency diversion scenarios. Fuel requirements are separate.
 
Yes, the range is just a start. I'm not knocking the tech/the idea/the plan, just this PR statement.

This is the point: the PR statement is not the final rating for the aircraft that is released.
If they believe 250 is the minimum they'll hit for now, that will only go up from there.

And yes, it is understood that you're not flying planes w/o reserve energy for varying weather conditions, etc.
 
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I don't even want to THINK about that.
Up to 250 miles? Why bother? Lots of people in Florida will still drive over 100 -150 miles to a different airport to get better fares. Jax people drive to Orlando to get on international non stops because the Mouse has created such a demand that it's worth the 100+ mile drive, even with the mortal fear of driving on I-4.
Tallahassee folks drive to Jax all the time - 167 miles.

The technology would have to get 100x better before I'd even go near one of those planes.
It's a long drive to the Bahamas. ;)
There are definitely a lot of places that utilize short hop flights.

I'm cycling through seasons of Air Disasters the last week or so and there are uncountable places with poor/no infrastructure that could use short hop planes (SE Asia, Caribbean, etc.).

Thinking about what goes into aircraft engine maintenance and I'd bet they airlines see a lot of potential savings beyond fuel costs.
 
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It's a long drive to the Bahamas. ;)
There are definitely a lot of places that utilize short hop flights.

I'm cycling through seasons of Air Disasters the last week or so and there are uncountable places with poor/no infrastructure that could use short hop planes (SE Asia, Caribbean, etc.).

Thinking about what goes into aircraft engine maintenance and I'd bet they airlines see a lot of potential savings beyond fuel costs.
Ok maybe to Bimini or the Bahamas like the old Chalk’s Flying Service days...if they were modified seaplanes like the ones used.
 
Ok maybe to Bimini or the Bahamas like the old Chalk’s Flying Service days...if they were modified seaplanes like the ones used.
I watched the one on Chalk's last night! :eek:

It's going to win out because it's going to become a cheaper way to operate:

Is there really a market for 19-seater electric aircraft?​

A few decades ago, 19-seater aircraft were very common. Since then, the large acquisition and maintenance cost of turboprop jet engines have made 19-seaters uneconomical. Whereas regional planes averaged at 20 seats in the 1980s, today they average 80 seats.

Why don’t airlines fly as many 19-seaters anymore?​

When the engine cost-of-ownership can be the same for a 19-seater and a 70-seater, and engine wear is the same whether you fly a 100 km as a 1000 km route, flying short hops with small turboprop aircraft is simply not profitable to airlines.

How does going electric change the economic equation?​

Our electric motor is about 20 times less expensive than a similarly-size turboprop, and about a 100 times less expensive than the cheapest turbofan. More importantly, maintenance costs are more than 100 times lower. These lower operating costs will make 19-seater electric aircraft competitive to 70-seater turboprop aircraft.

Will electric aircraft create increased demand for short-haul air travel?​

Yes. In the US, only 0.5% of 250-mile trips are being flown. Electric aircraft could enable a mode shift, where routes that previously were driven by car can be done by air. These will be driven largely by the reduction in maintenance costs – airlines operate at very low profit margins, and a reduction in maintenance cost has a nonlinear effect on profitability.

What’s a typical route that the ES-19 will fly in 2026?​

Our early adopter market will be very short flights where there is high demand. This will include island-hopping and flying over mountainous terrain, where the flight distance is significantly less than the road routes available.

What are typical early routes in the US?​

Examples of routes include Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to Purdue University Airport (LAF) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Modesto City-County Airport (MOD).

What are typical routes in the Nordic countries?

Typical routes in the Nordic countries include Stockholm-Visby, Bergen-Stavanger, Skellefteå-Vaasa, Trondheim-Östersund, and Gothenburg-Copenhagen, as well as all domestic flights on Iceland and Greenland.

What are typical routes in the rest of the world?

We have seen large interest for domestic flights in Canada, New Zealand, the British Isles, and the Alps, but also from countries like Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands that has undergone a four-fold increase in domestic air travel in the last decade.
 
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