Elfly and Nordic Seaplanes sign deal for up to 15 aircraft

Elfly Group has signed an agreement with Nordic Seaplanes, Europe’s only scheduled seaplane operator, for the purchase of up to 15 aircraft.

The deal will see the carrier become the launch customer of Elfly’s all-electric seaplane Noemi following its planned type certification in 2030. The memorandum of understanding is for the initial purchase of five aircraft with options for 10 more. If fully realised the deal could be worth up to $150m for Elfly.

The agreement was confirmed and signed today by Ole Christiansen, CEO and chairman of Nordic Seaplanes and Eric Lithun, CEO and co-founder of Elfly.

“The renaissance of the seaplane is coming,” said Lithun. “Collaborating with this well positioned European partner [Nordic], with its wealth of operational experience here and overseas, makes a lot of sense.  We can learn much from them about operating in a challenging environment and together we aim to tap seaplane markets beyond Scandinavia.

“Look how close we are to the city centre, this is why we chose this location. Coastal air mobility from city centre to city centre is happening right here in Denmark today. Nordic has customers that travel multiple times per week. If we can achieve similar performance with zero emissions and much lower noise we are opening up new opportunities for mobility,” added Lithun.

The CEOs of Nordic Seaplanes and Elfy Group, Ole Christensen (right) and Eric Lithun (left), at the signing ceremony in Copenhagen.

Nordic, which currently operates daily services between Copenhagen and the city of Aarhus in northern Denmark, has also agreed to explore the deployment of seaplanes in partnership Elfly further afield. Potential locations include Gotland, Stockholm, The Canary Islands and Greece. 

The airline’s operations team will also work closely with Elfly on development of its aircraft, Nordic has been conducting water operations flying De Havilland Twin Otter floatplanes since 2016. 

“We have a very successful operation with our Twin Otters, but we are excited to embrace a future into 2030 that is electric,” said Ole Christensen. “With Elfly’s Noemi in a nine-seat configuration, we are making an investment in clean technology, sustainability, which will assure our business well into the future, not just for Denmark but as we look to expand into other coastal markets too.”

Katja Nordgaard, Norway’s ambassador to Denmark, was in attendance for the signing ceremony. “The green transition is one of our main priorities and to be able to come and see concrete examples of that transition taking place, especially in a sector as challenging as aviation, is really stimulating,” said Nordgaard. 

Nordic’s Twin Otter taxiing out of its base in Copenhagen. The flight time to Aarhus is 45 minutes.

Nordic Seaplanes owners Lasse Rungholm and Lars Erik Nielsen previously flew for and oversaw the world’s largest seaplane operator Trans Maldivian Airways which has a 67-strong fleet of Twin Otters. 

“We have people coming up to us saying you have saved my marriage, you have saved my life because of the services we offer [at Nordic],” said Rungholm. “It is truly unique too, we are the only scheduled seaplane operator in all of Europe, which is amazing because there is so water around this continent.”

Decarbonising services has become a top priority for Nordic since Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s 2024 annual address in which she announced Denmark will stop using fossil fuels in domestic air travel by 2030. Up until now, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has provided the only means of decarbonisation for Nordic — a purchase option is offered to customers before each flight. The carrier also offers an integrated mobility service in partnership with Audi, that allows customers to rent either an electric vehicle or bicycle for travel whilst in the city centre. 

“You can opt for 25, 50 or 100% SAF when you buy your ticket,” says Rungholm. “Which we buy using the mass balancing principle. We then buy SAF using the money collected throughout the year and put it directly into the tank. But it is really expensive and you cannot fly on 100% SAF yet, so we need to look into alternatives. For us that is Noemi.”