• 21 Jun 2022 12:19 AM
• 0

Surf Air to Go Public, Merge with Southern Airways

Surf Air Mobility, the Los Angeles, California-based electric air travel company, announced on May 18 that it would merge with Southern Airways Corporation and become a publicly traded company. Following the merger, Surf will take the company public through a transaction involving a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Tuscan Holdings Corp. The value of the combined company is estimated at $1.42B and the SPAC transaction is expected to provide Surf with $467M in gross cash proceeds.

Surf intends to upgrade Southern’s fleet of nearly 40 Cessna Grand Caravans to hybrid-electric aircraft. Southern, the largest passenger operator of Cessna Grand Caravans in the US, is the Florida-based parent company for two commuter airlines, Southern Airways Express and Mokulele Airlines, and serves 39 cities across the country.

Also on May 18, Surf Air Mobility announced agreements with AeroTEC and magniX to develop and certify hybrid-electric and fully electric powertrains for Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft (shown). “AeroTEC and magniX are perfect partners for SAM to accelerate electrification of Cessna Grand Caravans and to lead the new era of green flying,” Sudhin Shahani, Surf co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. magniX and AeroTEC flew their all-electric eCaravan demonstrator in May 2020 at Moses Lake, Washington.