Amsterdam October 6, 2022 Transavia invests in FlyWithLucy (LUCY), the first electric airline focused entirely on electric flight. The backing was made by Transavia’s investment group, Transavia Ventures, and is part of its ambition to increase sustainablity. With this investment, the airline is making electric flying available to consumers in the future. The two parties signed the agreement during the World Aviation Festival at the RAI in Amsterdam, where the global aviation sector convened for three days.
Transavia’s CEO Marcel de Nooijer shared, “We are going to make flying with Transavia more sustainable. And so we are also exploring and researching different future scenarios. The investment in Lucy is the third promising technological solution in our sustainability strategy this year. We were the first low-cost airline to start refueling with Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), thus reducing emissions. Still limited, due to low availability and high costs, but it’s a great start. We are also a partner in the construction of a hydrogen infrastructure around Rotterdam The Hague Airport, in order to be able to fly with hydrogen. Finally, with Lucy, we are investing in electric flying.”
From 2025 from Eindhoven
Lucy will offer its first electric flights from Eindhoven Airport in 2025. In doing so, a completely new ecosystem of universities, startups, corporates and aircraft manufacturers will join forces. Lucy will start with 5-seat electric planes with a range of about 250 km. The ambition over time, of course, is larger electric planes with a longer range. The planes will first replace regional aviation and then will eventually integrate into the current route network of commercial aviation companies.
From business to leisure
According to Teun Kraaij, Founder of Lucy, “Electric flying focuses on the business traveler in the first phase. Thanks to the partnership with Transavia, we can accelerate electric flying to vacation destinations as well. Around 2030 we will have the technology to take over parts of routes from existing airlines.”
About Transavia Ventures
Transavia Ventures is the investment fund of Transavia Airlines. It focuses on collaborating with, and investing in, startups that help make aviation, and particularly Transavia, more sustainable. This often involves promising innovations that will eventually reduce emissions, such as electric and/or hydrogen flying and the development of synthetic fuel. But reducing noise or recycling waste streams are also important focal points. This involves intensive cooperation with universities, knowledge institutes and startups. This is important because only through a connection between existing aviation and newcomers can sustainable innovations be applied faster.
About Lucy
Lucy will develop and accelerate the operation of sustainable aviation. The company will operate fast, 100% sustainable flights with a comfortable door-to-door experience for business travelers starting in 2025. The ambition is to play a leading role in the transformation to emission-free aviation in Europe.
