AirAsia to form new ride sharing platform with air taxis, but will it take off in Malaysia?

AirAsia Aviation Group Limited has announced that they’ve signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Avolon, an aircraft leasing company, to lease at least 100 electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) from them. Additionally, AirAsia and Avolon will work together to commercialise eVTOL aircraft and develop an urban air mobility (UAM) platform in the Southeast Asia region. The goal it seems is to create a new ride sharing platform for Southeast Asia, but in the air.

As for the specific eVTOL aircraft in question, Vertical Aerospace’s VX4 carries up to four passengers at one time, and is operated by just a single pilot. It is projected to have speeds up to 320km/h with a range of over 160km too. The VX4 is also nearly silent in flight and Vertical claims that it has zero operating emissions as well as low costs per passenger mile. Tony Fernandes believes that the VX4 will become the eVTOL aircraft of choice for companies looking to get into the air taxi industry. In fact, AirAsia and Avolon are also forming a work group to pursue local certification and research potential market opportunities and infrastructure requirements for these air taxis in this region. The airline plans to use the AirAsia Super App to help support their ride sharing platform once it kicks off in 2025.

However, while Fernandes and co begin their plan to bring these air taxis into fruition, there’s still a question over its legality. Regulators such as the Federal Aviation Administration in the US have yet to approve these electric aircraft for service, and it may take many years longer before they get approved. It is especially troublesome for eVTOL manufacturers as their battery-powered planes often come with new technologies that don’t exactly meet the traditional safety standards of older aircraft. The VX4 in particular is only expected to be approved by the UK authorities sometime in 2024, which means that AirAsia’s goal for the VX4 to enter service under their new air taxi service may not exactly be entirely realistic as they’ll need to convince our own Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia to approve it for flight.

Nevertheless, there’s some reason to believe that these eVTOL may one day take flight in Malaysia. In Singapore, there are already plans to launch commercial air taxi services by 2024, with two companies—Volocopter and Skyports—pioneering the industry there. They are hoping to branch into the Malaysian market too, having previously signed an MoU with Malaysia Airports in July last year to look at developing vertiports for these eVTOL aircraft in Malaysia.

“We are now much more than just an airline with over 20 products and services on our super app leveraging off each other including flights, hotels, food, retail, delivery, ride hailing and more. I am truly excited about this partnership between Avolon and AirAsia and the potential for zero-emissions ultra-short-haul air travel in Southeast Asia. The digital era is now,” – Tony Fernandes

Avolon, based in Ireland, had purchased 500 of these VX4 eVTOL aircraft from Vertical Aerospace back in June of last year for around USD2 billion. Since then, Avolon has made deals to lease out these eVTOL aircraft from Brazil’s Gol and Grupo Comporte, Japan Airlines and now AirAsia too, with up to 90% of Avolon’s fleet of 500 VX4 already taken up. Vertical expects the VX4 to open up air mobility to a host of new passengers, and could be the plane to bring about AirAsia and Avalon’s plan to build a new ride sharing platform using these eVTOL aircraft. Could you imagine one day waking up and, instead of booking a Grab ride to work you call in a plane instead?