The American company Bye Aerospace — based in Denver, Colorado — has announced that KLM Flight Academy, located at Groningen Airport Eelde in the Netherlands, has completed purchase deposits for six all-electric eFlyer 2 and eight all-electric eFlyer 4 aircraft.

Bart de Vries, KLM Flight Academy’s managing director, said: “We are excited to become part of the eFlyer development of Bye Aerospace and look forward to becoming a zero-emission flight academy in support of our parent company’s development and strategy.”

The eFlyer family of aircraft aims to be the first FAA-certified, practical, all-electric airplanes to serve the flight training and general aviation markets. All the company’s current and future families of aircraft feature engineering, research and electric aircraft solutions are designed to ‘specifically address market needs’.

Benefits include five-fold lower operating costs, no CO₂ emissions and decreased noise. Bye Aerospace estimates the eFlyer will eventually eliminate the release of millions of tonnes of CO₂ each year as its deliveries begin and the world’s conventional general aviation fleet is replaced.

Bye Aerospace says it has developed and is in the process of FAA certifying a family of zero-emission electric aircraft that offer one-fifth the operating cost and are safer than traditional aeroplanes. The company already has a backlog of over 700 aircraft.