Could small ‘Tesla of the air’ electric planes and $25 tickets be the future of short trips?

Imagine taking your next trip of a couple hundred kilometres. New York City to Boston, for example. Or Houston to Dallas. Tampa to Miami.

The obvious choice now might be to drive. But what if you could show up at an airport at one of those cities, bypass security checkpoints, board a small hybrid-electric plane with luggage in hand, and be on the ground at your destination in about an hour - all for US$25 each way?

A company called Zunum Aero hopes to make that a reality, so that future travellers who normally take a car, bus or train for regional trips won’t think twice about flying. The Washington state-based start-up says that since 2013, it has been developing a fleet of hybrid-electric planes that would make those kinds of inexpensive, short-haul flights possible.

The company has some heavyweight investor partners, including Boeing HorizonX and JetBlue Technology Ventures, subsidiaries of their respective companies. It also faces a number of competitors and obstacles, particularly battery limitations. But if successful, it could significantly change regional air travel, where options have shrivelled and costs have crept up in recent decades.

“Think of it as Tesla of the air,” said Bonny Simi, president of JetBlue Technology Ventures. “[Or] think of it as an electric bus in the air.”

Zunum Aero emerged from “stealth mode” on Wednesday to announce its ambitious goals: to be flying routes of up to 1,100km (think Atlanta to Washington, D.C.) by the mid-2020s and then routes of up to 1,600km (think Los Angeles to Seattle) by 2030.