Electric aviation and charter flight company Surf Air Mobility (SAM) is seeking a public listing through a combination with Tuscan Holdings Corp. II (THCA).
SAM has also announced plans to acquire Southern Airways Corporation, with the deal expected to complete at the same time as the merger with special purpose acquisition company THCA.
The merger is expected to provide $467 million in proceeds to SAM, while the combined company including SAM, Southern and THCA, which is valued at $1.4 billion, expects to generate about $100 million in revenue in 2022.
Southern served more than 300,000 customers across 39 cities via its Cessna Grand Caravans in 2021.
Stan Little, Southern’s chairman and CEO, will become president of the combined company.
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In a statement, SAM says the merger and acquisition of Southern positions it “to be a leader in the electrification of commercial aviation, providing it with resources necessary to bring electrified powertrain technology to market and expanding and electrifying regional consumer scheduled and charter flight services.”
It adds that the company plans “to deploy the world’s largest fleet of hybrid electric aircraft on regional routes being serviced today and on additional routes in new markets.”
Sudhin Shahani, co-founder and CEO of Surf Air Mobility, says: “We believe deploying hybrid electric propulsion technology on existing aircraft at scale will be the most significant step we can take toward decarbonization of aviation in this decade.
“We’re at a moment when the increasing consumer demand for faster, affordable, and cleaner regional travel will be met with SAM’s electrification ecosystem to accelerate the industry’s adoption of green flying.”
The combined company is expected to go public in the second half of 2022.