BETA Eyes Role In Dutch Cargo Network

BETA Technologies completed another demonstration tour in Europe last week with its all-electric Alia CX300, this time visiting various airports in the Netherlands and Belgium. This was part of an initiative of e-Smart Avia, which plans to launch a cargo network with BETA’s in Europe by the end of 2027. After six months flying in Norway to demonstrate how the Alia performs on cargo routes between Bergen and Stavanger together with Bristow and Avinor, test aircraft N214BT wore different decals in the Netherlands - those of startup company e-Smart Avia. e-Smart Avia is part of Dubai-based e-Smart Group, but is owned one-third by Dutch shareholders. At last November’s Dubai Airshow, the parent holding placed an order for five BETA Alia aircraft plus 15 options. e-Smart wants to operate them on cargo routes within the UAE and Oman. But the Schiphol-based Dutch company targets Europe as the region to launch operations. “The plan is to operate a cargo network out of the Netherlands across multiple airports, including Amsterdam Schiphol, Lelystad Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Antwerp, and Brussels. From there, we ferry express goods to airports in the UK, Germany and France”, says Jonas van Stekelenburg, project manager launch. e-Smart Avia believes there is a business case for ferrying time-critical, high-value cargo, such as medical goods, vaccines, human transplant organs, and parts. “For instance, you can have an aircraft on ground in Scotland that urgently needs a part. We could fly it with an express service. It’s not new, it exists today, but we would be the first to do it with an all-electric aircraft.” Charging infrastructure The choice for the Netherlands has two reasons. The country has a strong history of air logistics at Schiphol and Maastricht Aachen Airport. And despite restricted capacity on the power systems network in most parts of the country, the Netherlands have a strong electric infrastructure. This is evident at Lelystad Airport, which the BETA visited last Friday on a tour from Schiphol to Den Helder and on to Rotterdam. Lelystad Airport is now used for general aviation, but hopes to finally open for commercial leisure traffic by the end of 2027. This depends on a valid nature permit and the approval of certain air navigation routes. The airport has a fully finished passenger terminal and an extended runway since 2019, but no passenger has ever used the terminal as the airport is not cleared yet for commercial service. [caption id="attachment_192499" align="aligncenter" width="676"] BETA Alia CX300 cargo bay[/caption] What Lelystad Airport did, however, was to provide charging facilities for electric aircraft. So when the BETA arrived, it was plugged into the system to charge the five battery stacks. To promote electric flying, charging is free, and no landing fees apply for these aircraft. The airport lacks cargo infrastructure, but this is the case at other airports as well. That’s why e-Smart Avia wants to be sure that all the charging and other infrastructure are in place at the airports it wants to fly to and from, before it commits to launching cargo flights. That’s why it invited the minister of Infrastructure to a briefing to convince him of the benefits of e-cargo flights. The launch also depends on the certification of the conventional take-off version (CTOL) of the Alia CX300. BETA expects FAA certification in 2027, soon to be followed by that from EASA and the UAE’s GCAA, said Patrick Buckles, the sales & marketing executive who flew on the Alia during the Dutch demo tour. The CTOL aircraft was at 71 percent of compliance planning and three percent of the implementation phase at the end of 2025, BETA said recently at its Q1 results presentation. The vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) version is at three percent of compliance planning and has yet to start the final phase. Certification of the HA500A electromotor was at 34 percent of the final phase. The cargo aircraft has a capacity to fly 560 kilograms of goods over a 500-kilometre range, says e-Smart Avia. AirInsight heard that a fully loaded Alia is limited to around 320 kilometres. This would make non-stop flights from the Netherlands to Scotland a challenge. Buckles said that BETA hopes to benefit from improved and new batteries to extend the range. He guides battery life at around three years, depending on how the aircraft is used. BETA currently has a backlog of $3.9 billion for around 1.000 aircraft on firm order and on option. It plans to build 4,5 aircraft per month by the end of the year. Prospective customers include Bristow, Air New Zealand, UPS, Alaska’s Ryan Air, Space Leasing or UrbanLink. Buckles said that BETA will share some exciting updates at next month’s Farnborough Airshow.

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