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Archer is currently preparing for first flight with its piloted, preproduction Midnight air taxi.
Archer has announced a new partnership with Ethiopian Airlines, part of its Launch Edition initiative to earn early revenues in international markets.
The partnership will see Archer send Midnight electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft to Ethiopia for air taxi operations, along with a team of pilots, maintenance technicians and engineers.
Ethiopia marks the second country added to Archer’s Launch Edition program, in which the company will transfer precertification examples of its Midnight into various international launch markets for in-country testing and market survey flight trials.
Adam Goldstein, Archer’s founder and CEO, has described the program as a means to stand up the startup’s business in various markets and generate early revenues while the company works through the FAA’s resource-intensive and time-consuming type certification process.
Archer previously announced Abu Dhabi as the first country to participate in the initiative alongside plans to send its first of seven aircraft into the emirate around midyear. A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its timeline for sending aircraft into Ethiopia.
Goldstein has said the revenues will primarily be realized through aircraft sales. The company has not disclosed specifics of any order agreements, but it says the Ethiopian agreement is valued at up to $30 million, while the Abu Dhabi agreement is worth up to $20 million.
“We have found a way to monetize our aircraft even ahead of FAA certification,” Goldstein told Aviation Week in late February. “That means we have less of a sole dependence on waiting for type cert, because we can still deploy every plane we build, and build out a real business. The FAA cert will come whenever it comes–but we’re not going to wait around to start standing up our business and generating revenues.”
While Archer plans to operate its own Part 135 airline service in the U.S., the country’s hybrid business model will see it partner with other operators, such as Falcon Aviation in the UAE and Ethiopian Airlines, in various international markets.
Goldstein previously said that Archer plans to expand the Launch Edition effort to other markets and is in talks with “dozens” of countries about joining the program.
The news comes as Archer prepares for its first piloted flight with a preproduction Midnight aircraft.
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