Rotorcraft
Airbus Orders Climb, CityAirbus eVTOL Program Pausing
Battery technology remains insufficient for electric program progress
CityAirbus
The CityAirbus eVTOL program is on hold.

Airbus Helicopters is taking a break from development of the CityAirbus eVTOL aircraft. While it plans to continue flying the prototype electric aircraft this year after its first flight in 2024, the company is also pausing the program due to a lack of progress in battery technology. 

“We launched this prototype four years ago with the objective to be in position to launch a new program before the end of the decade,” said CEO Bruno Even. “It has been clearly instrumental to advance our understanding of technologies that are not only relevant for the urban air mobility market but for all of our portfolio. At the same time, we see today—and that’s been the result of the strategic review that we performed at the end of 2024—that the conditions to launch a new program are not necessarily there.