Something new took to the skies this summer — all-electric planes taking flight as part of a demonstration by BETA Technologies and Mokulele Airlines.
The airline has considered electric planes in the past as a way to reduce carbon emissions and lower costs on short-haul regional flights on Lanaʻi and Molokaʻi.
Now, Mokulele's parent company, Surf Air, dove headfirst into the field with an order for 25 of BETA's electric aircraft.
Pilots gained experience flying the five-seater Alia around the islands for a six-week trial over the summer.
Sheradin Fabrizius is the new director of aircraft sales at BETA Technologies. She joined HPR to share how the latest test runs of all-electric airplane flights between Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, and Lanaʻi went.
The electric aircraft, she explained, was a good fit for Mokulele Airline's demand for frequent interisland trips.
“They have a need to fly, again, short haul flights, but multiple legs a day, and dispatch reliability is everything to these customers. So we needed to prove that the aircraft could go 100% of the time, every time, in different weather conditions, with different cargo payloads,” Fabrizius explained.
“We flew close to 5,000 nautical miles, and some days we were flying over 300 miles, doing multiple round robins between Honolulu, Molokaʻi, and Lanaʻi, and we had a 100% dispatch rate, which is fantastic.”
Part of the testing included getting Mokulele pilots accustomed with flying the newer aircraft.
“It's like upgrading your iPhone from an iPhone 7 to an iPhone 13,” Fabrizius explained. “It's more user-friendly, faster processing speeds; the graphics are much better when you're looking at traffic or weather or terrain. So it's a sophisticated modern product.”
Mokulele’s parent company Surf Air has committed to buying 25 of the all-electric Alia planes. BETA plans to deliver the fleet in one to three years, when they will become permanent additions to Hawaiʻi’s skyline.
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 11, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
