The founder of Sydney Seaplanes, Aaron Shaw, who exited the business last year, has established a new Sydney-based company focused on urban air mobility called Alt Air.

The company plans to eventually operate Eve Air Mobility eVTOL aircraft, once these in development all-electric aircraft are internationally certified, but will begin operations with Cessna Caravan amphibious aircraft, Shaw tell Smart Aviation APAC.

He says Alt Air is applying for a scheduled air operator certificate (AOC) and plans to launch operations with three to four Cessna Caravans on operating lease. He says he is seeking aircraft that are less than five years old and ideally already fitted with amphibious floats.

Shaw says even though Alt Air will initially be based at the seaplane terminal at Sydney Harbor’s Rose Bay, it will target a completely different market segment to Sydney Seaplanes, which he describes as a charter operator focused on leisure travel and scenic tourism flights.

He says he sold Sydney Seaplanes in early 2025 to Australian hotelier Jerry Schwartz, because Schwartz was keen to buy the airline as it complemented his tourism-related businesses.

Shaw says he got the idea for Alt Air after realizing there was huge demand among the local population for a scheduled air service linking central Sydney to the surrounding areas – New South Wales central coast, Newcastle, Canberra and Wollongong. “There’s 1.6 million people travelling out of the city each month [using land transport] to places that are more than two hours’ drive away,” says Shaw.

Shaw says Australia has potential to be a world-leader in urban air mobility air services because – unlike many other countries – the land infrastructure is in place to support air services in densely populated areas, citing the Rose Bay terminal as an example.

He says he saw firsthand the market potential of urban air mobility after Sydney Seaplanes operated a successful passenger service linking the Sydney central business district to the industrial town of Newcastle, on the coast about 2-3hr drive away.

“We had people using that air service every week and some said it ‘changed their lives’. We had one medical professional, for example, who told us that before the air service, he had to leave home at 5:00am so he could drive and reach Newcastle at 8:30am.” He says some of the corporates that signed on for the air service included educational, health and insurance service providers.

Despite the success, Shaw says Sydney Seaplanes suspended the service to focus on its core business – leisure travel and scenic flights.

He confirms that Sydney Seaplanes was more pre-disposed to very shorts flights around Sydney, rather than the Newcastle service, because it increased the aircraft’s utilization.

Shaw says he is predisposed to ordering the Eve Air Mobility eVTOL aircraft, because he is familiar with the program having signed a letter of intent for the aircraft when he was at Sydney Seaplanes.

He says Eve Air Mobility has been quite conservative in its development time-frame – unlike others that were overly ambitious and “did themselves a disservice” by failing to meet their targets.

Shaw also says he is predisposed to Eve Air Mobility because Embraer owns the company, and knows how to develop a comprehensive customer support network and certify aircraft.

But he also points out that eVTOL aircraft only have about 100km range, so Alt Air also plans to acquire all-electric or hybrid-electric fixed-wing aircraft (e-CTOLs). “These have more range and can be used to serve destinations further away,” he adds.

He says he is considering eCTOL aircraft from US companies Electra and BETA Technologies.

The Electra Ultra Short (EL9) is a hybrid-electric fixed-wing aircraft designed for nine passengers, approximately the same passenger capacity as a standard Cessna Caravan. The BETA Alica CTOL seats five passengers and is designed to fly 336 nautical mile range.

Feature picture from Eve Air Mobility shows an artist’s impression of the Eve eVTOL flying over a city harbor.