InterGlobe, Archer Partner To Launch All-Electric Air Taxi Service in India

InterGlobe, Archer Partner To Launch All-Electric Air Taxi Service in India

Indian travel and hospitality conglomerate InterGlobe Enterprises and Archer Aviation have announced entering into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to launch and operate an all-electric air taxi in India. Archer Aviation deals with electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

The firm said that Archer’s midnight aircraft is a piloted, four-passenger electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft designed to perform rapid back-to-back flights with minimal charge time between flights. It said that the goal is for a passenger on an InterGlobe-Archer flight to be able to fly the 27- km Delhi trip from Connaught Place to Gurugram, typically taking 60 to 90 minutes by car, in approximately 7 minutes, suhering to a new segment of electric air taxi in India.

In addition to urban electric air taxi in India, the parties plan to pursue various other use cases for electric aircraft in India, including cargo, logistics, medical and emergency services, private company and charter services.

The firms also said the electric air taxi in India would be subject to appropriate regulatory approvals and clearances. Rahul Bhatia, Group Managing Director of InterGlobe, and Nikhil Goel, Chief Commercial Officer of Archer, signed the MoU to form a proposed partnership through which the parties aim to provide a revolutionary transportation solution for the country, improving urban mobility with safe, sustainable, and low-noise electric air taxi service that is cost competitive with ground transportation.

The parties intend to work with select in-country business partners to operate Archer’s aircraft, finance and build vertiport infrastructure, and train pilots and other personnel needed for these operations. The partnership meant for boosting electric air taxi in India also plans to finance the purchase of up to 200 Archer’s Midnight aircraft for India’s operations.

Before the talks of introduction of the electric air taxis in India, such experiments have been done in other parts of the world too. In January this year, Saudi Arabia successfully completed its first electric air taxi test flights. It was due to the collaboration of NEOM and Volocopter, a German air mobility company.

Earlier, in 2000, Uber and Hyundai Motor also announced a new partnership to develop electric air taxis. As per the agreement, Hyundai was supposed to produce and deploy the electric air taxis while Uber was mandated to provide airspace support services. There are several other examples too.