The first test flight in the project was carried out on Friday between Glasgow and Dundee in Scotland. Additional flights are scheduled between Aberdeen, Inverness, Wick and Orkney. During the tests, representative letters and packages are transported to mimic the daily routes that supply the Scottish Highlands and islands with mail.
The aircraft used is the Alia CTOL model, developed by American Beta Technologies. It is a fully electric aircraft with a range of up to 336 nautical miles (622 km) and a payload capacity of 560 kilograms. The model uses existing runways and is charged in 20 to 40 minutes via the company's own fast-charging system.
This is an important step towards making electric postal flights a reality for some of the UK’s most remote communities. By partnering with Loganair and Beta Technologies, we are proud to be the first British delivery company to test an electric aircraft, says Chris Paxton, Head of Strategy and Innovation at Royal Mail.
Part of Zero-Emission Strategy
For Royal Mail, the tests are part of the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2040. The company halved its use of domestic flights during 2024 to retain only the most necessary routes. Electrification of the remaining flights is intended to further reduce emissions, which is added to the company's ongoing use of 8,000 electric vans and drones.
Luke Farajallah, CEO of the airline Loganair, states that the test flights will evaluate the technology's capacity outside of theory:
We are not talking about concepts, prototypes or distant ambitions, this is a real, tangible flight program in our network that will provide invaluable data on how an electric aircraft can perform in a real commercial environment.
More Logistics Players Invest in Electric Aircraft
Royal Mail is not the first player in the logistics sector to look at the possibilities of flying goods on electricity. Ehandel.se has previously reported on DHL Express, which in 2021 announced that they had purchased twelve electric aircraft of the Alice model from the manufacturer Eviation Aircraft, among other things to transport e-commerce packages. In September 2022, the model's first test flight was carried out over the state of Washington in the USA.