An Air Tesla? JetBlue-, Boeing-Backed Startup Zunum Aero Plans Cheap Electric Flights

Boeing Co BA and JetBlue Airways Corporation JBLU are investing in a radical new startup that plans to use electric-hybrid planes and smaller regional airports to offer regional air travel at about 80 percent of current costs.

Starting in the early 2020s, the Kirkland, Washington-based Zunum Aero said it aims to build aircraft with seating for 10 to 50 people and a range of at first 700 miles, then up to a thousand miles the following decade.

“Simply drive to a nearby airfield and walk to your aircraft with bags in tow, for a trip that will take half the time and at a much lower fare,” the company said on its website announcement.

Zunum, The Tesla Of Aircraft

“Zunum Aero could be the Tesla TSLA] of Aircraft,” Forbes trumpeted Thursday morning.

The company plans to build aircraft that serve densely traveled regional routes such as San Francisco to Los Angeles or Boston to Washington, D.C., with round-trip fares as low as $100.

Zunum has received backing from Boeing and JetBlue Technology Ventures, a subsidiary of JetBlue Airways.

The company says its operating costs will be low and its carbon footprint far smaller than gas-guzzling jetliners. It promises drastically reduced wait times.

Finding And Utilizing The Underused

Zunum Aero is looking to take advantage of underused airport inventory.

“Our stock of 13,500 airports is the largest in the world, yet just 140 of the largest hubs carry over 97 percent of air traffic,” the company’s website reads. “This has left many of us with long drives to catch a flight, while on shorter trips we skip air travel altogether. Communities without good air service also struggle to attract investment and create jobs.”

The company claims that 40 percent of airline emissions come from regional routes.

Zunum was founded by CEO Ashish Kumar, a former executive at Microsoft Corporation MSFT, Google GOOG GOOGL), Dell Inc. DELL) and McKinsey & Company, Inc. His online biography says he has a doctorate in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Cornell University and spent his early career as an engineering professor at Brown University.

The chief engineer is Matt Knapp, lead designer of the ATG Javelin, a small, high-speed jet developed by Aviation Technology Group, which declared bankruptcy in 2008 after financing dried up.

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