Kenya Airways targets 2025 for eVTOL testing

Kenya Airways (KQ, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) aims to start testing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft from 2025 through its new subsidiary Fahari Aviation (Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta), according to Chief Executive Officer Allan Kilavuka.

Speaking to Business Daily Africa, he said: “We are working on a future, 2025 onwards, to see how we can support urban mobility”.

This follows an announcement in August last year about a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Fahari Aviation and Eve Air Mobility, a unit of Embraer, to develop an eVTOL network in Kenya.

At the time of the announcement, Eve said it would work on its proposed eVTOL uncrewed aircraft with the support of Fahari Aviation, taking into account its operational requirements. Kenya Airways said it would look into eVTOL aircraft to establish first/last mile connectivity between airports and city centres.

Fahari Aviation is the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) division of Kenya Airways. It targets new revenue streams such as training courses for drone pilots; and drone operations for various industries such as surveillance and aerial mapping, inspection and engineerings works, emergency and rescue services, agriculture, and transportation services.