What an amphibious, hybrid-electric aircraft could mean for Malta and Gozo
In September, EVIA AERO signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US aircraft developer Tidal Flight for the Polaris Amphibian. One of the first routes on our list connects Valletta and Gozo — and we would fly it on electricity alone.
A new mission profile
The agreement covers up to 20 aircraft for Europe: ten firm positions plus ten options. It makes EVIA AERO an early European launch customer for the type, and our ambition is to be among the very first operators to fly it once it enters service. The document is non-binding and subject to EASA validation and a definitive purchase agreement. We are deliberately open about that, because the interesting part is not the signature. It is what the aircraft makes possible.
Why we do not bet on one technology
EVIA AERO follows an end-to-end concept for clean regional flight. We develop renewable generation and storage at partner airports, and we match the right clean aircraft to the right mission rather than waiting for one technology to solve everything. Battery-electric commuters cover short point-to-point legs. Hybrid-electric regional aircraft cover the distances that batteries cannot yet reach. The Polaris adds a profile none of them can serve: flying where there is no runway at all.
Europe’s coastlines, harbours and lakes are full of places that were never given an airport and never needed one. An amphibian turns them into points on a network. City centres and holiday destinations are usually built around water — which means the aircraft arrives where people actually want to be, not thirty minutes outside it.
What the Polaris is
The Polaris is a hybrid-electric amphibian. Two electric units of at least 250 kW each are fed by a 150 kW generator and a battery; the combustion side runs on Jet A-1 or sustainable aviation fuel. Tidal Flight is configuring the cabin for up to 13 passengers, single-pilot capable, with a cruise speed of 296 km/h and a range of 1,389 km carrying around a tonne. Up to roughly 110 kilometres, it flies on battery alone. These are manufacturer figures; the aircraft is in development, with powertrain and subsystem testing under way.
Two numbers matter more than the rest for an island. The Polaris needs about 750 metres of water — not a runway. And it needs around 350 kW of charging power, which is a harbour installation, not an airport programme.
Valletta – Gozo, as we have modelled it
The air distance between the Grand Harbour and Mġarr is roughly 25 kilometres. That is a block time of under twenty minutes, flown fully electric, against a crossing that today means driving to Ċirkewwa, queuing for a ferry and driving on at the other end.
On our planning assumptions, six to eight round trips a day are realistic once charging between rotations is accounted for. With a 13-seat cabin, that is roughly 80 to 100 seats in each direction every day — enough for commuters, for patients travelling to hospital in Malta, for business travellers who currently lose half a day, and for visitors in season. The electricity can come from photovoltaics and storage at the terminal itself, which is exactly the business our energy arm develops elsewhere in Europe.
What has to happen first
We would rather name the obstacles than talk around them. There are three.
Certification. Tidal Flight is working towards US type certification at the end of 2030, with European validation expected in the middle of 2031 and first deliveries in December 2031. No aircraft of this type is certified today. Everything below depends on that schedule holding.
Permission to operate on the water. A scheduled service into the Grand Harbour and Mġarr needs more than an airworthy aircraft. It needs designated take-off and landing areas on the water, approvals from the Maltese authorities and the ports, procedures agreed with air traffic services, and a sensible coexistence with ferry and cruise traffic. On our side it means a water-flying section in the operations manual, pilots with seaplane ratings, and a maintenance programme that takes salt water seriously.
Infrastructure. A harbour terminal is a modest piece of building compared with an airport, but it still has to exist: a landing stage, passenger handling, a charger of around 350 kW and the local generation behind it. Together with our partner Fabspace we can build that on the water — on pontoons in a harbour — rather than acquiring land.
Why we think it is worth it
Island connections are where the case for clean aviation is easiest to make and hardest to deliver. The distances are short enough for electricity. The alternatives are slow. And the infrastructure that conventional aviation would demand is exactly what small islands cannot justify.
That is the gap the Polaris fits. We would be glad to discuss it with partners in Malta — port operators, the authorities, and anyone thinking about what a connection between the islands should look like at the end of this decade.
About EVIA AERO
EVIA AERO is a Bremen-based aviation company building a sustainable regional air-mobility ecosystem. Its activities span electric and hybrid-electric aircraft operations, airport infrastructure partnerships, green-energy systems and pilot training. EVIA AERO works with airports and partners across Europe to prepare for zero- and low-emission flight. www.evia-aero.com
Images: Polaris Amphibian in EVIA AERO livery, renderings by Tidal Flight, supplied for this article and used with Tidal Flight’s approval. Press contact: press@evia-aero.com
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