The German flag-carrier Lufthansa and the eVTOL developer of the Lilium Jet have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to team up and explore “innovation opportunities in aviation”.
The two companies confirmed on December 7, 2023, they would be looking at the potential of the eVTOL market and discussing areas such as ground and flight operations, future aircraft maintenance, as well as crewing and flight training.
While there is currently no promise of Lufthansa Group placing an order for the Lilium Jet, there is room for a “possible strategic partnership”.
The study may involve third parties like airports and regional partners, for instance on the advancement of infrastructure such as vertiports, airspace integration and the definition of required operation processes.
“We want to develop aviation further and drive the transformation of the industry,” Dr. Detlef Kayser, Member of the Lufthansa Group’s Executive Board, responsible for Fleet & Technology, said. “This Memorandum of Understanding with Lilium will make an important contribution to this. Only with innovation, courage and determination can we, as an industry, make aviation more sustainable and master the challenges of the future.”
Celebrating the agreement Klaus Roewe, the CEO of Lilium, said he was “thrilled to explore opportunities on bringing eVTOL flights to Lufthansa Group customers”.
The MoU comes a day after Lilium announced that the first complete fuselage arrived at its production facilities in Wessling, Germany and will now go onto the final assembly line.
The fuselage will be matched and joined with the aircraft’s canards and main wings, and represents a watershed moment, shifting from the design phase to industrialization of the Lilium Jet.
The assembly line will be used to build seven aircraft to be used for the flight test campaign to achieve Type Certification of the Lilium Jet with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
“To see the first aircraft fuselage on the final assembly line ready to join up with the canard and wings is a proud moment for everyone involved in our mission to make aviation sustainable. We firmly believe the Lilium Jet will usher in a new era of sustainable regional mobility, offering the highest safety standards, as well as superior comfort, unit economics, and customer experience,” Roewe commented.
The start of assembly follows Lilium’s Design Organization Approval by EASA, confirming that Lilium has the organization, procedures, competencies, resources, and demonstrated rigor required to certify aircraft according to the very highest safety standards.