US air tax firm Archer Aviation has moved to purchase Hawthorne Municipal airport for $126 million, providing the electric aircraft manufacturer with a base for planned passenger-carrying operations in the Los Angeles area ahead of the Summer 2028 Olympics.
Archer said on 6 November that it has signed a signed a series of agreements to purchase the “one-of-kind Los Angeles asset”. The start-up hails the acquisition as an opportunity to test new AI-driven operational and air traffic control technologies that it is “developing and it plans to deploy with its airline and technology partners”.
Notably, Archer has maintained a long-term relationship with United Airlines, with the companies collaborating on potential air taxi operations feeding United’s domestic and international network on dense urban areas, including in Los Angeles.
Hawthorne Regional, also known as Jack Northrop Field, is located within several miles of Los Angeles international airport, sitting on a 32ha (80 acre) site with 17,652sq m (190,000sq ft) of terminal, office and hangar facility space.
Archer boasts of holding more than $1.6 billion in total liquidity, which it is using to advance development of its piloted, four-passenger electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, called Midnight. It is also working to develop a hybrid-electric variant through a partnership with Anduril.
The California Bay Area start-up is angling to launch operations ahead of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics, though the eVTOL sector is under increasing pressure to launch revenue-generating operations as certification timelines drag later into the decade and cash burn continues at a fierce pace.
In the nine months ending 30 September, Archer reports a net loss of $429 million, including a loss of $130 million in the third quarter alone.
”We have incurred net losses since our inception and to date have not generated any revenues,” the company says in its most recent 10-Q filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. ”We expect to incur additional losses and higher operating expenses for the foreseeable future.”
Archer adds that it has enough cash and equivalents to float its aircraft programmes ”for the next 12 months to meet our requirements and plans for cash, including meeting our working capital requirements and capital expenditure requirements”.
Last month, Archer successfully bid to acquire the assets of now-defunct German eVTOL developer Lilium, including more than 300 patents related to its Lilium Jet platform.