Melbourne, Florida, July 22, 2021 – Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions, Inc. (“Eve”), an Embraer company, and Flapper Tecnologia, S.A. (“Flapper”), an independent on-demand private aviation platform, today announced a partnership aimed at developing the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) market in Latin America. The partnership will serve as a proof-of-concept (POC) for future regional operations of Eve’s electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, also known in the market as EVA (Electrical Vertical Aircraft).
Eve expects to provide Flapper with up to 25,000 hours of flight time per year across key cities in South America, including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte (all in Brazil), Santiago de Chile (Chile), Bogotá (Colombia), and Mexico City (Mexico). The parties plan to foster a culture of on-demand UAM booking using helicopters to serve as data collection for the future development of the EVA. This agreement has the potential to bring up to 25 of Eve’s Electric Vertical Aircraft (EVA) to Flapper’s platform.
Eve unveils a unique value proposition by offering a suite of agnostic UAM products and services. Backed by Embraer’s more than 50-year history of proven track record aircraft manufacturing and certification, Eve offers a zero-emission, low noise, and community-friendly EVA based on a simple and intuitive human-centric design. Eve continues to reach development milestones, including the first flight of the engineering simulator in July 2020, and a proof of concept in October 2020. In parallel, Eve’s Urban Air Traffic Management (UATM) project reached a new milestone in its collaboration with the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to develop a scalable environment needed to host UAM flights.
“Flapper’s regional reach combined with its disruptive on-demand technology make it an ideal partner for the future expansion of our operations in Latin America. Deploying Eve’s zero-emission aircraft will enable the company to democratize UAM to new stakeholders and key markets, such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile. This is an important building block to extend Eve’s global leadership in the UAM space,” said Andre Stein, President & CEO of Eve.
“Six out of the ten largest urban helicopter fleets are in Latin America and the region currently boasts the densest helicopter infrastructure in the world. Together with a traditionally high acceptance of UAM in our operating markets makes us perfectly positioned to lead the aerial mobility revolution in the sector. Thanks to our partnership with Eve, we hope to expand our current pay-per-seat network and implement a smooth transition towards more agile and efficient supply types. We believe that the Eve team’s track record of providing reliable AAM solutions at record speeds is of utmost importance to the success of similar projects anywhere in the world,” highlighted Paul Malicki, CEO of Flapper.
The deployment of Eve aircraft across the Flapper network is subject to the parties entering into definitive final agreements.
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About Eve
Eve is a new, independent company dedicated to accelerating the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) ecosystem. Benefitting from a startup mindset, backed by Embraer’s more than 50-year history of aerospace expertise, and with a singular focus, Eve is taking a holistic approach to progressing the UAM ecosystem, with an advanced electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (eVTOL) project, comprehensive global services and support network, and a unique air traffic management solution. Eve is the first company to graduate from EmbraerX.
Follow Eve on Twitter: @EveAirMobility
For more information, visit www.eveairmobility.com
About Flapper
Launched in 2016, Flapper is the first on-demand private aviation company in Latin America. The company commercialized scheduled flights in Brazil and boasts more than 730 safety-vetted charter aircraft on its regional marketplace platform. Flapper reports more than 250’000 users of its mobile app and is both ARGUS- and Wyvern-certified.
For more information, visit www.flyflapper.com/en.
About Embraer
A global aerospace company headquartered in Brazil, Embraer has businesses in Commercial and Executive aviation, Defense & Security and Agricultural Aviation. The company designs, develops, manufactures and markets aircraft and systems, providing Services & Support to customers after-sales.
Since it was founded in 1969, Embraer has delivered more than 8,000 aircraft. On average, about every 10 seconds an aircraft manufactured by Embraer takes off somewhere in the world, transporting over 145 million passengers a year.
Embraer is the leading manufacturer of commercial jets up to 150 seats and the main exporter of high value-added goods in Brazil. The company maintains industrial units, offices, service and parts distribution centers, among other activities, across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Forward-Looking Information Is Subject to Risk and Uncertainty
Certain statements in this release may be “forward-looking” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the potential agreement between Flapper and Eve, the proposed business combination, and the ability of Eve to deliver eVTOL aircraft in 2026, as well as any other statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Forward-looking statements are based on current assumptions about future events that may not prove to be accurate. These statements are not guaranteed and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. As a result, these statements speak only as of the date they are made and neither party undertakes an obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, except as required by law. Specific factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include the effect of global economic conditions, the ability of the parties to negotiate and enter into a definitive agreement and realize anticipated synergies, the ability of EVE to obtain the required certifications to manufacture and sell its eVTOL aircraft, and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in the filings of Embraer with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
