Case study / Essential Air Service economics

Watertown to Boston or Philadelphia: electricity is only the first comparison.

A small electric aircraft can have a much lower energy bill per departure than a 50-seat regional jet. But five five-passenger flights provide only one-quarter of the seats offered by two 50-seat flights, and the route pushes beyond the practical nonstop mission of most current eVTOL concepts.

Preliminary finding

Lower trip energy does not automatically produce lower route cost.

Under the baseline assumptions, five electric departures consume about $688 in electricity while two regional-jet departures consume about $3,000 in fuel. The offered capacity is 25 seats versus 100 seats.

At equal capacity, the five-seat aircraft needs 20 departures—not five. Baseline electricity would then be about $2,752 per day, close to the regional jet’s modeled $3,000 fuel bill before accounting for additional pilots, cycles, landing events, chargers, infrastructure, battery depreciation, maintenance, and disruption recovery.

Model assumptions

Every figure is exposed so the model can be replaced with certificated-aircraft and operator data later.

Route distance

Watertown–Boston approximately 240 nautical miles; Watertown–Philadelphia approximately 250 nautical miles, great-circle before routing, weather, approaches, alternates, or reserves.

Electric case

Representative five-passenger electric aircraft; five one-way departures; 700 kWh delivered per departure; electricity at $0.1966/kWh. The energy input is a sensitivity assumption, not manufacturer performance data.

Regional-jet case

Representative 50-seat CRJ-200 or ERJ-145 class; two one-way departures; 500 gallons of Jet A per departure; fuel at $3.00/gallon. Fuel burn and price are sensitivity assumptions, not operator data.

Scope

Propulsion energy only. The comparison excludes aircraft ownership, crews, maintenance, batteries, reserves, charging equipment, demand charges, airport costs, insurance, overhead, repositioning, subsidy, and revenue.

Five electric departures vs two RJ departures

One-way departures from Watertown; return flying would scale both cases.

MeasureFive-seat electric50-seat regional jet

Flights per day

Seats per flight

Daily seats offered

100

Energy per flight

700 kWh assumed

500 gal assumed

Energy price

$0.1966/kWh

$3.00/gal

Energy cost per flight

$137.62

$1,500

Daily energy cost

$688.10

$3,000

Energy cost per offered seat

$27.52

$30.00

Electricity sensitivity

Demand charges, charger losses, and infrastructure costs can materially change the effective rate.

CaseDelivered energyEffective rateTrip energy costEnergy per seat

Low500 kWh$0.12$60$12.00

Baseline700 kWh$0.1966$137.62$27.52

High900 kWh$0.30$270$54.00

Range and schedule barrier

This is not yet a normal eVTOL mission.

The approximately 240–250 nautical-mile stage must be evaluated with actual routing, IFR reserves, alternates, winter winds, icing capability, battery temperature, payload, degradation, and diversion options. A published maximum or demonstrated range is not the same as a dependable Part 135 passenger mission.

BETA publicly describes a five-passenger configuration, a 35-minute optimized charge time, and a 336-nautical-mile maximum demonstrated range for its aircraft family. It has also reported a 153-nautical-mile flight completed with IFR energy reserves. Those are meaningful data points, but they do not establish that Watertown–Boston or Philadelphia is ready for daily commercial service.

What the complete case study must add

Compare cost per completed passenger trip.

01Use the certificated aircraft’s route-specific energy, payload, reserve, and weather data.
02Price electricity using the airport tariff, charger efficiency, peak demand, and required redundancy.
03Include battery depreciation, cycle limits, condition monitoring, replacement, quarantine, and disposal.
04Model crews, maintenance, landing and facility charges, insurance, ownership, and dispatch coverage.
05Compare the number of aircraft and chargers required to protect the schedule during faults and charging.
06Test daily seats, load factor, connection utility, schedule quality, completion rate, subsidy, and fare.
07Run separate summer, winter, known-icing, forecast-icing, and irregular-operation scenarios.

Public starting data

Replace assumptions as certified data becomes available.

This is a preliminary sensitivity study, not a forecast, aircraft endorsement, fare estimate, or proposal for a specific EAS procurement.

Develop a route-specific model ↗