The largest Embraer private jet operator in Latin America, Avantto, has signed a letter of intent to purchase 100 eVTOL aircraft from Eve Urban Air Mobility. (Eve) Aviation Management Services – Serviços Aeronáuticos Ltda. (Avantto), the largest operator of Embraer executive jets in Latin America, has signed a letter of intention (LOI) under a partnership with Eve Urban Air Mobility, LLC to order 100 of its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
The LOI is part of a broader partnership between Avantto and Embraer’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) subsidiary Eve to develop a UAM ecosystem in Latin America, according to an Oct. 4 announcement.
“For more than a decade, Avantto has uniquely developed software, systems, and procedures enabling the company to offer 24/7 on-call flight services for short-haul intra-city helicopter transportation to its hundreds of active members. This exclusive know-how will be one of the principal pillars of the urban air mobility ecosystem developed by the EVE/Avantto partnership,” Rogério Andrade, CEO and Founder of Avantto said in a statement.
Eve describes the eVTOL that it is developing as featuring an all-electric low-noise design that is continuing to meet their program milestones including "the first flight of the engineering simulator in July 2020, and a proof of concept in October 2020." The company has not released many details about the design of the eVTOL it is developing other than real and computer-generated images of the aircraft showing an eight-rotor design and noting that it will feature a fifth generation fly-by-wire system as well.
The eVTOL that Eve is developing achieved its first engineering simulator flight in July 2020, and a proof of concept in October 2020, according to the company.
Avantto has become the latest private aviation operator to partner or sign an intent-to-purchase offer with Eve after a series of other companies signed similar agreements with the company in recent months. In June for example, Halo, a helicopter provider in the U.S. and U.K., formed a partnership with Eve to develop UAM products and services in the U.S. and U.K. Helisul, one of the largest helicopter operators in Latin America, formed a partnership with Eve in June that includes an order for up to 50 eVTOLs.
Fahari Aviation, a subsidiary of Kenya Airways, also became an Eve partner in August, in an effort to develop operational models for the wide-accessibility of UAM to support some of Fahari Aviation’s key markets in the region.
“Avantto has […]