The Brazilian low-cost airline GOL has announced a partnership with the Irish leasing company Avolon to offer air taxi services in the future. To this end, GOL, together with the industrial conglomerate Gruop Comporte, will develop and introduce a business model for the use of vertical take-off and landing air taxis in Brazil.
When choosing the aircraft, the partners agreed on the four-seater VA-X4 from the British manufacturer Vertical Aerospace. You want to buy or lease up to 250 copies of this air taxi model.
Avolon ordered 500 VA-X4s from Vertical Aerospace in June – Aerobuzz reported about it. The manufacturer puts the order value for the 310 firmly ordered VA-X4 at 1.25 billion US dollars (1.03 billion euros), if all 190 options are converted into firm orders, the order value would rise to 2.0 billion US dollars ( 1.66 billion euros). With the current partnership agreement, the leasing company has already placed half of these aircraft with a customer.
Ideal aircraft for São Paulo
Stephen Fitzpatrick, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vertical Aerospace said: “The VA-X4 is ideal for a city like São Paulo with a population of over 22 million people. Our eVTOLs will transform the way we travel in high-density cities that are clogged with traffic by taking to the air in zero-emission aircraft. We look forward to working with our existing partners Avolon and our new partners Gol and Grupo Comporte to bring this revolution in air traffic to Brazil. “
Vertical Aerospace is currently developing the VA-X4, which should go into commercial flight operations from 2024. The Air Taxi should have a range of 160 kilometers and a cruising speed of around 170 knots. A prototype is scheduled to go up in the air before the end of this year.
Bob Fischer
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