SurfAir Mobility’s Three Fer: Electric Aircraft, Southern Airways, Tuscan Holdings

Earlier this week, Surf Air Mobility appeared to be blowing up the airwaves with a multitude of deals and signings announced on 18 May 2022. If you haven’t heard of Surf Air, then today may be just the beginning of an ongoing acquaintance.

Firstly, Surf Air signed an exclusive agreement with AeroTEC and MagniX to accelerate the development of electrified commercial aircraft. In this deal, the sought development and certification of hybrid and fully electric powertrains for new and retrofitting existing Cessna C208 Grand Caravan aircraft, in an effort to reduce operating costs and emissions while improving affordability. These aircraft will of course be used by Surf Air, but also their third-party operators.

Secondly, Surf Air announced a merger with Southern Airways, pending closing and regulatory hurdles, and the result of which will result in Surf Air’s on-demand charter operations gaining access to Southern Airways’ regional hubs, and the latter expanding its reach into 5,000+ public use airports that the larger birds are typically unable to access. 

Southern Airways also operates Mokulele Airlines, and both of which stand to benefit from the results of the hybrid electric project that Surf Air has recently undertaken with the C208 hybrid-electric powertrain’s when their respective fleets are upgraded.

Thirdly, Surf Air Mobility also announced a merger with Tuscan Holdings Corporation II, a special purpose acquisition company, and will go public (become a publicly listed company) at the end of the deal, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain closing conditions. Apparently, the holding company was formed strictly for the purpose of the merger, and the deal comes at a healthy $1.42 billion price tag, some upper deck reorganization, and other shuffling.

FMI: https://surfair.com, https://flysouthern.com