The FBO network and aviation services provider on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Germany’s Lilium to electrify its network of more than 100 FBOs. The partners will transform existing U.S. airport infrastructure to accommodate the manufacturer’s flagship Lilium Jet, a seven-seat eVTOL design for regional air mobility (RAM) services.

Lilium intends to launch RAM operations worldwide, including in the U.S., as early as 2026.

“Atlantic’s extensive presence across major U.S. cities and expertise in ground infrastructure development and premier customer service will be invaluable in establishing a robust network that supports the Lilium Jet throughout the U.S.,” said Sebastien Borel, chief commercial officer of Lilium.

According to Lilium, Atlantic operates sites at more than 30 airport locations within its planned U.S. launch markets, which include Florida, Texas, Southern California, and the Northeast corridor. The German firm is the sole eVTOL manufacturer with certification bases from both the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and FAA, allowing it to fly on either side of the Atlantic.

The company’s flagship, seven-seat Jet is designed to fly routes between towns and inner cities, cruising at 162 knots on trips spanning 25 to 125 sm (22 to 109 nm). It began production of the first models in late 2023.

Together with Atlantic Aviation, the manufacturer hopes to plan a network of hubs that will support Lilium Jet operators. The partners will ensure current and future vertiports are compatible with the aircraft and give operators access to “strategic points” within Atlantic’s network.

Lilium and Atlantic will focus on infrastructure deployment and operations at existing and upcoming Atlantic sites, honing in on the passenger experience. Strategic planning will be molded around considerations such as aircraft flight paths, charging capabilities, passenger facilities, and operations forecasting.

“This collaboration underscores our firm conviction in the transformative potential of eVTOL technology in reshaping regional travel, and we are dedicated to furnishing the technology-agnostic infrastructure and assistance required to bring this vision to fruition,” said John Redcay, chief commercial and sustainability officer at Atlantic.

Atlantic in January also partnered with eVTOL air taxi manufacturers Archer Aviation, Joby Aviation, and Beta Technologies, with separate deals to electrify Atlantic terminals for Archer’s Midnight, Joby’s S4, Beta’s Alia, and other electric aircraft models.

Joby said its agreement will initially focus on FBOs in New York and Los Angeles. Archer too is eyeing those markets in addition to San Francisco and Miami, while Beta is targeting the East and Gulf Coasts. All three manufacturers have hinted that more sites are on the horizon.

Joby, however, diverges from Lilium and the rest of the pack when it comes to charging.

While Lilium, Archer, Beta, and a host of other eVTOL manufacturers back the General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s (GAMA) endorsement of the combined charging system (CCS)—a set of design standards also proposed for the electric ground vehicle industry—Joby has proposed its own standard, the global electric aviation charging system (GEACS). 

Both standards would accommodate any model of electric aircraft. Among the key differences between the two are that CCS is intended for both electric air and ground vehicles. Atlantic, Clay Lacy Aviation, and other FBO networks have said they intend to install both CCS and GEACS chargers, while others such as Signature Aviation have so far only committed to one.

Lilium last month partnered with electric charging infrastructure provider Star Charge, from which it placed a “first order” for 120 CCS-compatible chargers. The manufacturer expects these systems will substantially lower charging time, reducing turnaround time and maximizing hours in the sky.

Before charging the Lilium Jet, the systems will support the launch of Lilium’s Pioneer Edition model: the planned launch version of its flagship aircraft, with a $10 million price tag.

A total of 50 Pioneer Edition models will be sold to business and general aviation operators worldwide, intended for private, premium, and shuttle operations. Lilium says its go-to-market strategy of selling to the premium segment first will diversify its revenue stream.

The approach is predicated on vertiports and charging infrastructure being ready for the Lilium Jet’s intended launch in 2026—which is where partners such as Atlantic come in.

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The firm on Thursday announced a formal partnership with Signature Aviation, a FBO network for business and private aviation, to install systems at three East Coast airports, with discussions underway to include additional locations.

The first multimodal Beta charger is already installed and online at Signature’s Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (KMHT) terminal in New Hampshire, which the company said is the state’s first such system.

“Manchester is emerging as one of the top high-tech hubs in the Northeast, and we are honored that Manchester-Boston Regional Airport was chosen as Signature and BETA’s first operational electric aviation site,” said KMHT director Ted Kitchens. “This interoperable charging station will help enable Manchester and southern New Hampshire to have better access to electric aviation, which will bring us better regional air mobility as we move into this exciting new era of electric transportation.”

Additional chargers—which Beta said will come online this summer—are being installed on Signature terminals at Frederick Municipal Airport (KFDK) in Maryland and Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport (KCHO) in Virgina.

“As one of the leading private terminal operators anywhere in the world, Signature takes a forward-leaning approach to best serve their broad base of aviators,” said Nate Ward, head of network development for Beta. “Beta has long been focused on building a reliable, accessible network of chargers for aircraft, and this collaboration represents another important pathway toward scaling our network.”

Beta’s chargers are designed to be multimodal and interoperable, accessible to the company’s aircraft, other developers’ electric models, or any electric air or ground vehicle.

The systems adhere to the international combined charging system (CCS) standard, which has also been proposed as the standard for electric ground vehicles. In September, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) endorsed the CCS alongside Beta, Archer Aviation, Lilium, Volocopter, Overair, Boeing’s Wisk Aero, and several other electric air taxi manufacturers.

Joby Aviation, one of Beta’s U.S. competitors, has proposed its own charging standard—the global electric aviation charging system (GEACS)—which it touts as an alternative to the CCS. In the electric ground vehicle space, Tesla’s North American charging system (NACS) is gradually supplanting the CCS as the industry standard. But Beta and others are pushing for the latter to become the norm in aviation.

Signature is Beta’s third FBO partner. The partnership follows a deal with Atlantic Aviation to install systems at New York’s Elmira Regional Airport (KELM), Birmingham International Airport (KBHM) in Alabama, Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport (KJAN) in Mississippi, and Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport (KBAF) in Massachusetts. The Elmira site is already online.

Beta in February also partnered with FBO network AvFlight to inaugurate an electric aircraft charger at Golden Triangle Regional Airport (KGTR) in Columbus, Mississippi. The partners said it was the first such system to be installed in the state.

Now Signature, which bills itself as world’s largest private aviation terminal operator, is getting in on the action.

“We are thrilled to further solidify our partnership with Beta, which underscores our unwavering commitment to shaping the future of aviation through our sustainability initiatives in Signature Renew,” said Derek DeCross, chief commercial officer for Signature Aviation. “Together with Beta, we’re not only creating greater access to electric aviation but also unlocking new possibilities in regional air mobility for our guests, all while championing sustainability and innovation in the aviation industry.”

Signature earlier this week rebranded to emphasize its focus on aviation hospitality, customer experience, and sustainability. The firm achieved carbon neutrality across its entire global network in 2022 and last year said it pumped its 25th million gallon of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The company’s three East Coast sites now join Beta’s U.S. charging network, which spans the coast from Vermont to Florida and extends as far west as Arkansas. Chargers have now been installed at 19 locations, with another 50 sites in the permitting or construction process, Beta said Thursday.

Within the manufacturer’s network is the first electric aircraft charger installed at a Department of Defense (DOD) base. Customers include the DOD, regional and state-owned airports, FBOs, and even other electric aircraft developers.

Beta is already using the sites to charge its all-electric aircraft. It stopped at several charging stations in October during a 12-state, 1,500 nm journey to Eglin Air Force Base’s Duke Field (KEGI) in Florida, where it recently concluded an initial three-month deployment for the U.S. Air Force.

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On Wednesday, Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation joined Beta Technologies in collaborating with Atlantic Aviation, an FBO network and aviation services provider, to add electric charging stations to Atlantic locations across the U.S. The new infrastructure will open up the airfields to Joby’s S4, Archer’s Midnight, Beta’s Alia, and other electric air taxi designs.

Atlantic’s goal is to build technology-agnostic aviation infrastructure—in other words, it plans to work with a variety of firms to electrify its terminals. Joby said its agreement will initially focus on FBOs in New York and Los Angeles. Archer is also eyeing those two markets, in addition to San Francisco and Miami.

Beta, which announced its partnership last week, is targeting the East and Gulf coasts. The firm has already installed a system at New York’s Elmira Regional Airport (KELM) and agreed to add infrastructure to Birmingham International Airport (KBHM) in Alabama, Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport (KJAN) in Mississippi, and Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport (KBAF) in Massachusetts.

All three manufacturers have hinted that more sites are on the horizon. In addition, each will work with Atlantic to study how its air taxi design can operate safely alongside traditional aircraft.

Joby and Beta did not provide timelines for their initial projects, but Archer said its early systems will come online in 2025.

“These initial eVTOL vertiport locations will provide a launching pad for future expansion across Atlantic’s portfolio and ensure that our Midnight aircraft has safe, centrally located landing facilities for our future passengers,” said Nikhil Goel, chief commercial officer of Archer.

In addition, a memorandum of understanding between Archer and Atlantic calls for the two to enter a strategic partnership down the line, based on Archer’s commitments for landing and infrastructure investments.

Beta, meanwhile, expects its collaboration to produce a “template” for FBO-OEM relationships. The blueprint would speed the execution of host site agreements (HSAs), which permit manufacturers such as Beta to install electric infrastructure at sites they do not own. Doing so would help the industry prepare for the first passenger-carrying air taxi flights in the U.S., which are expected to begin in 2025.

Clash of the Chargers

While Joby, Archer, and Beta are all working with Atlantic, they will be delivering slightly different systems. In fact, Joby has publicly clashed with Archer and Beta over the firms’ conflicting charging frameworks, both of which attempt to set the industry standard.

Interestingly, Archer will actually be installing Beta’s charging systems at Atlantic sites. The firms partnered in November to expand the latter’s infrastructure under the combined charging system (CCS) standard, which was originally developed for electric ground vehicles to make chargers accessible to any automobile. As part of the deal, Archer purchased several Beta systems and expanded the latter’s network to the West Coast.

The CCS has been proposed as a standard for electric aircraft and was recently endorsed by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), which enjoys significant sway in the aviation industry. Beta and Archer contributed to the endorsement, which also garnered support from Boeing’s Wisk Aero, Lilium, Volocopter, Overair, and other air taxi manufacturers.

Beta describes its solution as an “interoperable rapid charging system” for all kinds of electric aircraft and ground vehicles alike. According to Beta and Archer, “several top OEMs” in the aviation industry are designing for the CCS-aligned systems.

As of Monday, Beta chargers are online at 17 locations nationwide, with a further 55 sites in the permitting or construction process. The network includes the first electric aircraft charger at a U.S. Department of Defense site, which was delivered in September to Eglin Air Force Base’s Duke Field (KEGI) in Florida. Earlier in the year, Beta flew its electric conventional take off and landing (eCTOL) aircraft to the base, testing chargers in its network along the way.

“Over the past several years, Beta has been focused on deploying a reliable, well-distributed network of fast chargers to enable the entire advanced air mobility industry, and we are aligned with the team at Atlantic on our mission,” said Nate Ward, head of charge network development at Beta.

Joby’s Alternative

One of the few large manufacturers to snub GAMA’s endorsement of the CCS was Joby, which has come up with its own standard—the global electric aviation charging system (GEACS).

Like CCS, GEACS—which was unveiled the same day Beta and Archer announced their partnership—calls for chargers to be widely accessible. Joby also agrees with its rivals that air taxi manufacturers, not industry outsiders, should be the ones to build the charging systems. But while the proposals have similar aims, there are a few key differences.

Unlike Beta’s system, Joby’s includes a coolant mechanism that keeps batteries at an optimal temperature during charging. Beta opted instead to separate the two systems. Joby’s charger also includes several DC channels, which can be used to juice up multiple isolated battery packs simultaneously. Conversely, Beta’s system requires only one channel—its and Archer’s air taxis concentrate the battery packs in a single location, while Joby’s spreads them across the airframe.

Joby also intends to use an Ethernet connection to download data—such as battery charge level and temperature—while the aircraft charges. That means operations won’t be bogged down by ground personnel. Beta and Archer have not mentioned such a system.

“Through more than 30,000 miles of all-electric vertical flight with full-scale prototype aircraft, our team has fine-tuned a ground support system that allows for the simultaneous recharging of  multiple battery packs, external coolant exchange, and secure data offload after flight—making it suitable for all electric aircraft,” said JoeBen Bevirt, CEO of Joby.

According to the manufacturer, GEACS is already in place at its flight test center in Marina, California, and Edwards Air Force Base (KEDW) outside Los Angeles. In addition, at least one other FBO is interested in the system. Joby last week partnered with Clay Lacy Aviation to install chargers at its John Wayne Airport (KSNA) terminal in Santa Ana, California. Clay Lacy Aviation replaced Atlantic as a service provider at John Wayne in 2020.

It’s still unclear which standard—CCS or GEACS—will win out in electric aviation. But for the industry to be accessible, chances are only one will be adopted.

A parallel conflict is unfolding in the electric ground vehicle industry, which may or may not be a harbinger for electric aircraft. In that space, the CCS is steadily losing ground to the North American charging standard (NACS) developed by industry leader Tesla, as Ford, General Motors, Toyota, and other automakers switch over. The NACS is equivalent to GEACS—an alternative standard proposed by a firm unsatisfied with the industry’s recommendation. The comparison isn’t perfect, however, since Joby has yet to reach the scale of Tesla.

If it can, Joby has a real chance at setting the industry standard, despite its rivals’ support of the CCS. But as each manufacturer looks to increase industrywide reliance on its tech, Beta and Archer will likely fight fiercely to be the top dog.

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Air taxi manufacturer Joby Aviation on Monday signed a definitive agreement with Clay Lacy Aviation—which operates full-service FBOs at Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) in Los Angeles and John Wayne Airport (KSNA) in Orange County, California—to install the first electric charging system in the region.

The installation will be part of Clay Lacy Aviation’s planned $100 million redevelopment of the FBO terminal at John Wayne Airport, also announced Monday.

“Since our founding more than 50 years ago, Clay Lacy [Aviation] has been committed to improving lives for our community, employees, and clients, leading the industry on safety and service while taking action to reduce emissions in both our ground and air operations,” said Scott Cutshall, senior vice president of strategy and sustainability at Clay Lacy Aviation. “We’re excited to be working with Joby to install Southern California’s first air taxi charger, and we look forward to the greater convenience it will bring to the Orange County community.”

Since replacing Atlantic Aviation as a service provider at John Wayne in 2020, Clay Lacy Aviation has operated out of a temporary facility at the airport. Renovations will comprise two phases: a new terminal and a pair of 37,800-square-foot hangars will come online early this year, with two 35,000-square-foot hangars joining them in mid-2025.

The charger being added to the airfield derives from Joby’s Global Electric Aviation Charging System (GEACS), which the manufacturer released at the end of 2023. The GEACS interface is already in use at Joby’s flight test center in Marina, California, as well as Edwards Air Force Base (KEDW) outside Los Angeles. The company in September delivered its first air taxi prototype to Edwards, where it began crewed flight tests the following month.

According to Joby, GEACS is designed to support safe and efficient operations for all electric aircraft under development, including the company’s own design.

“The charging technology we have developed is optimized to support our whole industry, from air taxis delivering short range city flights to more conventional electric aircraft flying longer distances,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby. “Joby made the specifications for the universal charging interface freely available to the wider industry in November 2023 to help accelerate the transition to clean flight. We’re therefore very pleased to see it being adopted in this key market.”

Joby’s stated goal is to make its service as accessible as possible, using a “safe and ultra-fast” system compatible with any electric aircraft. Accordingly, infrastructure developers and network operators would only need one type of charger to support the entire industry.

Joby’s charger includes multiple DC channels, which can juice up multiple isolated, redundant battery packs at the same time. A coolant system keeps the batteries at an ideal temperature during charging, eliminating the need for onboard thermal management systems.

Notably, the vehicles will communicate with the system directly. Joby will use an Ethernet connection to download flight data alongside normal charging operations, including data on battery charge level and temperature. That means operations won’t be bogged down by ground personnel.

Once complete, GEACS will be published as a freely available interface control specification. But it won’t be the only charging framework out there.

Two rival eVTOL air taxi manufacturers, Archer Aviation and Beta Technologies, partnered to push their own nationwide adoption of Beta’s air taxi chargers, making the announcement within hours of Joby’s. Archer purchased several Beta systems in a show of commitment.

The companies’ alternative pitch is for electric air taxis to adhere to the combined charging system (CCS) standard, which is used by several U.S. electric car manufacturers—with the notable exception of Tesla, the industry leader. Tesla developed its own standard, the North American charging standard (NACS).

The CCS was endorsed by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association in its Interoperability of Electric Charging Infrastructure report released last year. Both Archer and Beta contributed to the recommendation, as did Boeing’s Wisk Aero, Embraer’s Eve Air Mobility, Lilium, Volocopter, and Overair.

Archer and Beta maintain the CCS is the standard to which the top aviation OEMs are designing for. Joby, meanwhile, has claimed other electric aircraft companies will soon announce their decision to use its standard.

Unlike Joby’s system, Beta’s charger includes a separate coolant mechanism. And because the battery packs in Archer’s and Beta’s designs are in one location, the firms have no need to charge multiple packs at once. Joby’s battery packs are spread across the airframe.

Both Joby and Archer and Beta hope the industry will adopt their in-house system, which would foster some level of dependence upon their tech. For what it’s worth, in the automotive space, Tesla’s NACS—the analog to GEACS—won out, and more manufacturers, such as Ford and General Motors, are switching over from CCS.

“Today’s announcement marks a key moment on the path to delivering our air taxi service in the Greater Los Angeles area,” said Bevirt. “We’re taking concrete steps to ensure the right infrastructure is in place to support our future service and we’re grateful to be working with an industry pioneer like Clay Lacy Aviation to lead the way on bringing sustainable aviation to Southern California.”

Joby’s air taxi will fly a pilot and up to four passengers on routes spanning up to 100 sm (81 nm), cruising as fast as 200 mph (174 knots). The home-to-airport shuttle service is expected to produce zero in-flight emissions and a noise footprint “radically lower” than existing helicopters.

The installation at John Wayne adds the airfield as a node in the company’s Southern California network, Joby said. In partnership with Delta Air Lines, the manufacturer also plans to launch service in Los Angeles, as well as New York City and other airports served by Delta. Los Angeles is scheduled to be one of the company’s earliest U.S. launch markets, with commercial service expected in 2025.

Monday’s announcement follows Joby’s watershed flight in New York City in November, during which it became the first company to complete electric air taxi flights in the city. Germany’s Volocopter also participated. The demonstrations came shortly after New York City announced plans to electrify the historic Downtown Manhattan Heliport (JRB).

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Beta Technologies and Archer Aviation, two leaders in the eVTOL industry, can tell you: not much. In what the companies are calling an industry-first agreement, Beta and Archer are collaborating on the adoption of a shared charging system for electric aircraft, one that any eVTOL model can use. As part of the deal, Archer purchased several Beta charging stations.

The goal of the partnership, the manufacturers said, is to spur a wide rollout of interoperable electric chargers that follow the combined charging standard (CCS): the most widely used standard for ground-based electric vehicles. 

The CCS calls for harmonized charging interfaces. This means that Beta’s Alia-250 eVTOL and its recently unveiled eCTOL (electric conventional takeoff and landing) variant could share a charger with Archer’s Midnight, for example.

Soon, Midnight will plug in to a pair of Beta Charge Cube systems being delivered to Archer’s flight test facility in Salinas, California. The manufacturer will also acquire several Mini Cube mobile chargers, which it will rapidly deploy as needed. The move brings Beta’s charging network, which is largely concentrated in the eastern half of the U.S., to the West Coast.

“Over the past decade, transportation has shifted toward electric, and now we’re seeing resonance and viability for aviation to do the same,” said Kyle Clark, founder and CEO of Beta. “A backbone of reliable, fast, and accessible infrastructure will be critical to enabling this technology, which is why we’ve been focused on building out a charging network alongside our aircraft for some time now. When we designed our chargers, we saw an opportunity to support the entire sector by using an already peer reviewed standard.”

Beta is one of the few eVTOL manufacturers globally developing its own charging stations. So far, the company has systems in use at 14 sites on the East and Gulf coasts. 

These include two at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, delivered in September as part of a deal with AFWERX Agility Prime, the vertical lift division of the U.S. Air Force’s innovation arm. The chargers were the first to be installed at a Defense Department facility. Now, Beta is working to add its systems to another 55 locations, including Archer’s flight test facility.

In October, Beta flew the Alia to Eglin’s Duke Field (KEGI), marking its first delivery to a contracted partner. Archer also has a contract with AFWERX for the delivery of six Midnight aircraft to an unnamed air force base, worth up to $142 million, but it has not yet made a delivery. Joby Aviation, another large eVTOL manufacturer, sent the first of nine air taxis to Edwards Air Force Base in California ahead of schedule in September as part of its own AFWERX deal.

Chargers for All

Beta and Archer’s collaboration has implications for the entire eVTOL industry, not just the two partners. While both companies will use Beta’s electric chargers, the idea is for any electric aircraft—including those of competitors, such as Joby’s air taxi—to be able to plug in.

According to the partners, the CCS that Beta is adhering to is also what the top aviation OEMs are designing for. The standards were endorsed by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) in its September Interoperability of Electric Charging Infrastructure report, to which both Archer and Beta contributed. Its conclusions were also informed by Boeing’s Wisk Aero, Lilium, Volocopter, Overair, Embraer’s Eve Air Mobility, and several other large manufacturers.

The CCS includes peer-reviewed and global certification standards and is aligned with the European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment’s (EUROCAE) ED-308 provision, which sets minimum requirements for VTOL charging infrastructure around the world.

“The adoption of a unified charging standard will help promote electric aviation’s development at scale,” said Pete Bunce, president and CEO of GAMA. “Enabling electric aircraft and electric ground vehicles from different manufacturers to share charging infrastructure will help reduce the costs of electrifying existing infrastructure. A common standard will boost confidence in the emerging advanced air mobility sector of our industry and encourage adoption of, and access to, publicly accessible charging networks.”

In the eVTOL space, plenty of attention is paid to type certification, and rightfully so: It’s a major milestone, and manufacturers won’t be able to deliver or fly their production aircraft until they reach it. But charging infrastructure is arguably just as crucial a piece of the puzzle.

Similar to electric vehicles, the aircraft won’t be able to scale unless airfields have the systems required to refuel them. For electric air taxis, as for other electric aircraft, rapid charging will be crucial. Many manufacturers, including Archer, claim their services will be cost-competitive with rideshare—to achieve that, they’ll need to keep aircraft downtime to a minimum. Archer, for example, says Midnight will need just 12 minutes of charge time between trips.

“Fast charging is critical to ensure rapid turnaround times between flights,” said Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer. “A widespread, fast charging system is critical to ensuring electric air taxis reach scale in the coming years, and this collaboration between two industry leaders is an exciting step toward achieving that.”

Designing these chargers to be interoperable promises to be far more efficient than building individualized systems for each eVTOL manufacturer. As the industry scales, the ability for electric aircraft designs (and electric ground vehicles at airports) to share infrastructure should make charging capacity more available, both in the U.S. and internationally.

That last point is key because both Beta and Archer plan to deploy their aircraft outside the country. 

Archer’s main partner—and one of its largest backers—is United Airlines, with which it plans to operate air taxi routes in metro areas such as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles in 2025. But last month, the firm announced it also plans to launch in the United Arab Emirates the following year.

Beta, meanwhile, has orders from U.S. companies such as Bristow Group and Blade Urban Air Mobility. But it also has a purchase agreement with Air New Zealand, and most recently, it made a historic sale to Canada’s Helijet. The transaction made Alia the first eVTOL model bought by a Canadian air carrier.

Both companies have recently made progress on scaled manufacturing plants to produce their electric aircraft. Beta opened its facility at Burlington International Airport (KBTV) in October, while Archer recently secured $65 million to cover the “substantial majority” of construction costs for its Covington, Georgia, plant.

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