Spanish regional airline Air Nostrum has committed to buying 10 electric propulsion retrofit kits from Dovetail Electric Aviation. The companies announced the agreement on November 15 at the Dubai Airshow, but they have yet to specify which aircraft will be converted to either battery- or hydrogen-electric power.
In December 2022, Air Nostrum and another Spanish carrier Volotea acquired a minority stake in Dovetail’s parent company, Dante Aeronautical, which is working to market electric propulsion conversions of existing turboprop aircraft such as the Cessna Caravan, the DHC Twin Otter, the Beechcraft King Air, and the Casa C212. Air Nostrum is part of the Iberia group, and its current fleet includes the CRJ family of regional jets and the ATR72 twin turboprop.
Australia-based Dovetail will now work with Air Nostrum to define the optimum scheduled routes for which electric aircraft could be deployed. The company is aiming to gain a supplemental type certificate for a converted battery-electric aircraft in either late 2025 or early 2026, and it will develop hydrogen-electric kits in the longer term.
Spain-based Dante was founded in 2018 with an initial business model based on developing a new hybrid-electric 19-seat regional airliner called the DAX-19. It has since pushed back the start of this project to 2029, with a goal of achieving type certification in 2033.
UK leasing group Monte has previously committed to purchasing 50 converted aircraft on undisclosed terms. This would include a mix of the battery-powered Caravan and a hydrogen-electric King Air. It also holds provisional purchase agreements from Mint Air in South Korea and Sydney Seaplanes in Australia.
The battery electric conversions will initially use MagniX’s 650 kW motors and batteries provided by Mobius Energy. Under an agreement signed in late 2021, Dovetail and Dante are the exclusive distributors for U.S.-based MagniX in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, and Europe. The companies mainly intend to act as system integrators for the planned propulsion conversion projects.