Fully charged: Aerovolt powers up with public charging network for electric aircraft
February 3, 2026
Electric flight is no longer just a concept. Across the south coast of the UK, operational charging points are already supporting the first wave of electric aircraft. At the centre of that quieter, cleaner shift is Aerovolt.
The company is building the world’s first public charging network for electric aircraft, with live sites already installed at airports including at Bournemouth, Lee-on-Solent and Brighton City. Aerovolt’s global pipeline stretches to more than 250 airports across the UK, US, Europe and Australia.
“We’re at the stage where the infrastructure is real,” says Guy Haydon, chief commercial officer of Aerovolt. “We’ve got chargers in the ground, airports actively engaging, and electric aircraft coming to market.”
Aerovolt’s no-cost airport charging model for electric aircraft
Aerovolt’s approach is designed to remove barriers for airports. The company owns, installs and operates the charging infrastructure, covering both capital (CAPEX) and operational (OPEX) expenditure. Airports lease their land and receive a share of the profits, allowing them to offer electric charging without upfront investment.
“For airports, it’s a way to get the facility now,” Haydon explains. “They can support their flight schools and general aviation communities as they move towards electrification, which is very much where the first wave of electric aircraft will be deployed,” he continues. “As electric aircraft scale up, airports will have the infrastructure in place to attract more transit traffic and further investment.”
The infrastructure itself is highly site-dependent. Charger placement varies based on grid access, cable runs and operational layout, but the goal is flexibility. Critically, installation does not disrupt ongoing airport operations.
“Airports don’t have to shut down. Operations can carry on as normal,” says Haydon. “And at this stage, power requirements aren’t huge.”
The next generation of chargers Aerovolt is deploying will deliver around 45 kilowatts — “not even a huge charger at this stage,” but well matched to the electric aircraft entering service.
Electric aircraft infrastructure focuses on what works today
Rather than overbuilding for years down the line, Aerovolt is focused on what Haydon calls “the art of the possible”.
“We could install 300-kilowatt chargers tomorrow, but that would cost a lot of money for capacity that isn’t needed yet,” he says. “What’s happening now, in the real world in terms of the early adopters of electric aircraft, is flight training. There are viable electric aircraft coming to market in the next 12 months,” Haydon adds. He underlines that he sees no reason why this segment cannot be rapidly decarbonised.
“Flight training is the low-hanging fruit. It’s here, it’s viable, and it’s ready to move to electric.”
Looking further ahead, Aerovolt expects to support larger aircraft “including 10-seat platforms currently in testing and eventually electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs)”. Anything battery-powered that flies is ultimately within scope.
“It’s about investing now, and upgrading as required,” says Haydon. “We always put in more capacity than is needed initially, so we can scale up easily.”
That long-term partnership with airports is central to Aerovolt’s model. Reinvestment, Haydon emphasises, is a sign of success.
“If we’re having to come back and put in faster or more chargers, that’s good news. It means something’s working.”
Carbon credits help fund electric aircraft charging infrastructure
Aerovolt’s business model draws heavily on lessons from the electric vehicle charging industry, which is where Haydon started out.
“Just as I’d done in the car charging sector, we needed to raise a few million, through traditional methods of seeking investment through lenders,” he says. “But in 2025, an opportunity to generate funds through a different mechanism arose.”
Last year, Aerovolt was approached by a corporate jet operator asking whether it could purchase carbon credits linked to the charging network, using a book-and-claim model. “We realised this was a win-win scenario and the result is a Verra-approved carbon credit scheme that has become a key funding pillar for the company.”
“We have a pipeline of jet operators, FBOs, regional airlines and brokers who want to buy our credits,” Haydon explains. “So rather than selling lots of equity, we are selling carbon credits to fund our next phase of growth.”
This comes at a critical moment for aviation. New regulations will soon require operators to offset at least 6% of emissions under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), and supply is already constrained.
“There simply aren’t enough credits available,” Haydon says.
Aerovolt’s credits offer a comparatively low-cost alternative to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), while delivering tangible, near-term impact.
“Companies purchase credits to offset, and that money is used to put chargers in the ground and subsidise the kilowatt cost of electric flight. It’s a real-world offset.”
Fuelling training opportunities for the future workforce
The appeal extends beyond compliance. By funding electric infrastructure, jet operators can directly support the training of the next generation of pilots.
“Flight training is where it starts,” says Haydon. “You might train someone who eventually flies a widebody, and yes, that creates emissions. But the training phase can be decarbonised now.”
Electric aircraft are already being ordered by flight schools in the US, with some placing orders for fleets of ten or more. Aerovolt is co-locating chargers alongside these early adopters.
“It means commercial pilots can gain their licences with a portion of their training already done on electric aircraft,” Haydon notes.
Scaling a global electric aircraft charging network
Over the next 12 to 18 months, Aerovolt aims to install around 50 chargers, subject to funding, while seeding and developing its first US sites and expanding the UK network.
The scale of opportunity in North America is significant, with the entire UK airport and airstrip numbers vastly outstripped by Texas, Florida or California alone, Haydon points out.
Aerovolt is also progressing sites across Europe, where electric aircraft testing, validation and certification activity is already well underway. “You’ve also got companies like Robinson planning to launch an electric version of its R66 helicopter with demonstrator flights planned in 2026.”
For eVTOLs, the charging challenge is simpler than it might appear. Most manufacturers are aligning around CCS as the standard, with a few exceptions, such as Joby.
Keeping pace with technology timelines
Haydon is clear-eyed about the limits of current battery technology. While electric propulsion may realistically reach mid-size business jets in the near term, larger aircraft remain decades away.
“There are technologies like lithium-air batteries being tested that offer 10-20 times the energy density of current battery technology,” he says. “But they’re still on the test bed in labs, under controlled conditions. Scaling, certification and commercialisation take time.”
That doesn’t undermine the case for action now. The vast majority of general aviation flights are under 400 nautical miles. That’s well within the range of electric platforms already emerging, according to Haydon.
“Electric flying is already here,” he says. “By the end of the decade, we’ll see a lot more aircraft and a lot more choice.”
More than just a plug in the ground
Beyond hardware, Aerovolt is working closely with some “big players” in the flight planning and navigation space, integrating charger data into flight planning software so pilots can factor charging into routes and operations seamlessly.
“There’s a lot happening behind the scenes,” says Haydon. “It’s not just about installing plugs in the ground.”
The message to airports, he believes, is simple.
“Electrification is a lot closer and a lot more real than many people realise. The infrastructure can be deployed now, and the aircraft are arriving.”
Grid capacity will become a bigger consideration as aircraft scale up, but for the foreseeable future, Haydon sees no major constraints — provided long-term investment continues.
“We want to partner with airports that want to be early,” he says. “Electric aviation isn’t coming someday. It has already taken off.”
Featured image: Aerovolt
