TOYOTA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 23, 2026--
SkyDrive Inc. (“SkyDrive”), a leading compact eVTOL (*1) aircraft manufacturer based in Japan, announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with the following three Thai companies: Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited (“Bangkok Airways”), Saha Pathana Inter-Holding Public Company Limited (“SPI”) and Saha Tokyu Corporation Company Limited (“Saha Tokyu”).
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260722240028/en/
Under this partnership, the four companies have produced a comprehensive eVTOL roadmap covering the exploration of routes in Sri Racha, Bangkok and Ko Samui, as well as the development of tickets sales and maintenance networks.
Background to the agreement
This latest agreement follows on from a first MOU, signed in June 2024 by SPI, Saha Tokyu and SkyDrive, to support studies into the feasibility of introducing the SKYDRIVE aircraft Thailand (*2). Now, Bangkok Airways, a major Thai airline, is joining together with the three original signatories to explore more effective, concrete commercial possibilities for SkyDrive’s eVTOLs.
Bangkok Airways, which provides services within Thailand and between Thailand and neighboring nations, is a regional airline known for its "Asia's Boutique Airline" concept. As a provider of high-quality, customer-focused, personalized air travel, Bangkok Airways is keen to integrate eVTOLs into its route network. The airline, which has extensive knowledge and experience of the aviation industry, operates routes to major tourist destinations in Thailand, such as Trat, Sukhothai, Phuket, Chiang Mai, and Ko Samui. Owning and operating airports and hotels, including assets in Ko Samui, puts Bangkok Airways in a unique position to promote tourism development and harness its long track record in the tourism industry to drive the future growth of SkyDrive’s eVTOL.
The addition of Bangkok Airways to SkyDrive’s existing partnership with the Saha Group and Tokyu Group is a further step towards the establishment of next generation urban mobility infrastructure and a model of eVTOL use that links flights into the fabric of the city. Success in Thailand will provide a springboard for the roll out of viable eVTOL networks in Japan, as well as in other nations such as Australia and Vietnam. The seamless integration of next generation urban air mobility into urban development programs will create advanced urban transport networks that can be adapted to fit major cities across the world.
Collaboration over Strategies and Support for Commercializing eVTOL in Thailand
The four parties to the agreement have agreed to work in stages to develop systems for supporting the development of eVTOL businesses in Thailand. These systems, which will harness existing infrastructure and the cooperation of other local partners, will lay the groundwork for the sale of eVTOL aircraft and their future commercial operation.
We will first work together over the exhibition and demonstration of the aircraft, giving potential customers the opportunity to learn more about eVTOL and move towards purchase commitments. We will also determine the support systems required to achieve the smooth sale, storage and maintenance of the aircraft, as well as the training of pilots and other personnel, as fleet size and flight frequency increases.
The four parties will also investigate how, in the longer term, a wider range of business functions could be relocated into local markets as required by demand trends and market maturity.
Flight Routes
Under this agreement, the four signatories will start to assess and select specific flight routes within Thailand, focusing on alleviating traffic congestion and improving passenger access and convenience to a variety of destinations. We will also work to develop sightseeing flight options, levering the aircraft’s potential to stimulate further demand in the tourism industry.
Comments
Mr. Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, President of Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited States
This partnership marks an important milestone for Thailand’s aviation industry. The introduction of eVTOL technology represents a new innovation for Thai aviation, opening opportunities to rethink how we connect cities, airports, and key tourism destinations in a more efficient and environmentally responsible way. As a fully integrated aviation service provider, Bangkok Airways is well positioned to explore how the SKYDRIVE can complement our existing route network and airport infrastructure, particularly in destinations such as Samui, Sukhothai, and Trat. While this initiative is still at the study stage, we are ready to further examine the operational, regulatory, and commercial frameworks necessary to support future eVTOL services in Thailand. We believe this collaboration reflects our commitment to innovation and our responsibility to help shape the next chapter of sustainable air mobility in the country.
Vichai Kulsomphob, Executive Chairman & CEO of Saha Pathana Inter-Holding Public Company Limited
We are honored to support the strategic collaboration among SkyDrive Inc., Bangkok Airways, and Saha Tokyu Corporation, marking a significant step toward advancing sustainable air mobility in Thailand. This partnership represents important progress in the development of eVTOL operations—an innovative solution poised to transform transportation while reducing environmental impact. As a committed partner, we will provide close coordination and support to help establish a strong foundation for future commercial deployment. Through this collaboration, we aim to foster innovation, enhance connectivity, and contribute to Thailand’s long-term economic and social development, shaping a smarter and more sustainable future for the country.
Masahiko Nishimoto, Managing Director of Saha Tokyu Corporation Company Limited
Saha Tokyu Corporation Company Limited, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024, is dedicated to developing living environments in Sriracha, Thailand, a hub for Japanese manufacturing companies. We are honored to be part of this initiative, which will allow us to explore business opportunities in Thailand in collaboration with Bangkok Airways, SPI, and SkyDrive, a leading Japanese eVTOL aircraft manufacturer. Together, we will investigate operational applications for SkyDrive’s aircraft, supporting SkyDrive’s expansion into Sriracha, Thailand and contributing to regional development. We believe this initiative will significantly benefit Thai society, and its economy and we intend to play our part by offering real estate services, including housing and workspaces, as eVTOL helps Thailand’s regions to grow.
Tomohiro Fukuzawa, CEO of SkyDrive Inc.
We are truly honored to announce our partnership with Bangkok Airways, Saha Pathana Inter-Holding, and Saha Tokyu, three of Thailand’s leading companies. As rapid economic growth continues, Thailand faces critical challenges including chronic traffic congestion and environmental pollution caused by vehicle emissions. Since 2024, we have been working with Saha Pathana Inter-Holding and Saha Tokyu to explore how “SKYDRIVE” our compact, zero-emission eVTOL, can help resolve these issues. With the additional participation of regional airline Bangkok Airways, a company with extensive expertise in operations and tourism development, we will be able to accelerate studies of concrete flight routes and services. Moving forward, the four companies will work closely together to bring the commercial operation of our eVTOL aircraft to Thailand.
About Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited operates a fully integrated aviation business encompassing airline operations and airport-related services. Recognized as an award-winning regional full-service airline, the Company plays a key role in connecting major domestic and regional routes across Thailand and Asia.
Bangkok Airways owns and operates three airports in Thailand, Samui Airport, Sukhothai Airport, and Trat Airport, and provides vital air connectivity to key leisure and economic destinations, including Samui, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Krabi, Trat, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, and other major cities in the region.
The company’s airport-related businesses also include in-flight catering services, the supply of ground support equipment in accordance with international standards, and the operation of international air cargo terminal services.
For more information, please visit: https://www.bangkokair.com/
About Saha Pathana Inter-Holding Public Company Limited
Saha Pathana Inter-Holding Public Company Limited (SPI) was first incorporated on 5 April 1972. SPI is the main holding company of the Saha Group, Thailand’s leading conglomerate. The group manufactures and distributes a wide range of consumer products with many leading brands across multiple market segments. These include Mama, Wacoal, Pao, Essence, Mistine, and many more. Saha Group has built a strong business network, encompassing end-to-end supply chains, from raw materials through to manufacturing and distribution.
SPI is also the operator of industrial parks belonging to the group, providing utilities and services for companies operating in its industrial parks.
For more information, please visit: https://www.spi.co.th/en/home
About Saha Tokyu Corporation Company Limited
Saha Tokyu Corporation Company Limited is a joint venture company between Tokyu Group in Japan and the leading consumer goods manufacturing conglomerate in Thailand. The company was established on 1 October 2014. The company is presently engaged in the development of residential housing, serviced apartment and focused on delivering high quality, best housing property and service for Japanese and families in Sriracha, Chonburi. Saha Tokyu is headquartered in Sriracha, Chonburi. Masahiko Nishimoto is the Managing Director of the company.
For more information, please visit: https://sahatokyu.com/?lang=en
About SkyDrive Inc.
SkyDrive is a Japanese eVTOL company aiming “to take the lead in the once-in-a-century mobility revolution”. The company began testing eVTOL prototypes in 2014 prior to official incorporation in 2018. Under its future vision for urban transportation, flying in eVTOLs will become a regular part of city life. In 2019, SkyDrive became the first company to fly a crewed eVTOL in Japan. In 2025, the company successfully showcased the eVTOL "SKYDRIVE", the company’s first eVTOL product, with demonstration flights at the Osaka Expo witnessed by thousands of visitors over a one-month period. SkyDrive began production of “SKYDRIVE” in March 2024 at a plant owned by Suzuki Motor Corporation, SkyDrive's official production partner. SkyDrive has been working with civil aviation authorities in Japan and the US to obtain certification for “SKYDRIVE”, with the aim of launching the aircraft into service in 2028. SkyDrive is headquartered in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, and led by CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa, an engineer and entrepreneur.
For more information, please visit: https://skydrive.co.jp/en/
Editor’s Notes:
(*1) “eVTOL” is an abbreviation for electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing. As the name suggests, eVTOL aircraft can take off and land without a runway. eVTOLs are powered by electricity and incorporate advanced, automatic, flight control technology.
(*2) Related press releases:
https://skydrive.co.jp/en/archives/16552
https://skydrive.co.jp/en/archives/13132
Proposed flight routes in the Si Racha District
Rendering of the SKYDRIVE (SkyDrive model SD-05) flying over Ko Samui
HETAUDA, Nepal (AP) — She paces the side of the darkened highway in central Nepal, just enough light from the trucks roaring past to illuminate her painted face to the men rolling in on rickshaws and motorbikes. She knows that every stranger who pays for her body could end her life. But she also knows their money is the only thing preventing her death.
This spot, littered in condom wrappers and fringed by jungle, is familiar to her. Rubi Lama once came here not as a sex worker, but as an aid worker who helped sex workers.
For nine years, Lama — who is transgender — had devoted her life to conducting HIV outreach in Nepal’s marginalized communities, including the LGBTQ+ sex workers who wait by this highway each night. But after the United States slashed its foreign aid funding last year, Lama and more than 280,000 aid workers worldwide found themselves out of a job.
Much has been written about the devastating impacts the U.S. foreign aid cuts have had on the millions of people the funding once helped. Far less is known about the impacts on the helpers themselves.
In impoverished Nepal, where a conservative culture leaves openly transgender people with few legal job options, the impact on aid workers’ lives was particularly crushing. Starving and scared, Lama and around 100 other LGBTQ+ aid workers left jobless by the funding cuts have turned to sex work to survive, walking the streets alongside the very people they once fought so hard to help.
The public health implications are vast. With the U.S. funding cuts also eliminating access to HIV prevention medication in Nepal, health experts fear a spike in HIV prevalence among the surging ranks of sex workers, as well as members of the LGBTQ+ community.
On the side of the highway, the night is a cacophony of blaring horns and the shouts of drunken men. Lama, 28 years old, softspoken and shy, walks quietly among them, equal parts desperation and dread. Beyond her fear of HIV is her fear of violence, which she and nearly all her former colleagues who have taken to the streets have endured.
She’d give anything to go back to the nonprofit where she once cared for society’s most vulnerable. Now she is the one in need of care, but there is no one left to provide it.
It is 11 p.m. and she’s had two customers so far, who each paid her $3. Rent and food this month will cost her $80.
And so, her slight frame nearly swallowed by the shadows, she waits.
Just a few minutes down the road, in Lama’s old office, stickers bearing the logo of the U.S. Agency for International Development still cling to laptops that lie unused on barren desks, and to the empty condom distribution containers collecting dust.
This is the headquarters for the formerly USAID-funded non-governmental organization called Friends Hetauda, which offered HIV testing, counseling and prevention services to central Nepal’s LGBTQ+ community. All of that ended in January 2025, when U.S. President Donald Trump froze funding for USAID, once the world’s leading donor of humanitarian assistance. Trump later dissolved the agency after calling it a waste of money, even though the U.S. spent just 1% of its budget on foreign aid.
In a statement to The Associated Press, the U.S. State Department said the Trump administration had reinvigorated its assistance programs to focus on efficiency, effectiveness and partnership. The department also said the U.S. spends more on health and humanitarian assistance than any other country.
“The rest of the world needs to contribute more and share the burden,” the department said.
Of the more than 281,000 jobs lost due to Trump’s dismantling of USAID, just 23,000 were American, says Sadie Healy, who runs a global health consulting firm and has been tracking the job losses worldwide. The rest were overseas — many of them belonging to impoverished locals living in conflict zones or economically depressed regions where other employment options are scarce.
In Nepal alone, an estimated 35,000 aid workers lost their jobs amid the USAID cuts, says NGO Federation of Nepal President Arjun Bhattarai. With the country already facing high unemployment, the fallout was devastating.
The Blue Diamond Society, an umbrella organization for NGOs like Lama’s former employer, received 85% of its funding from USAID and was staffed largely by people who were themselves gender and sexual minorities. They served as counselors, health assistants, data collectors and outreach workers. They ran 20 clinics across Nepal, dispensing antiretroviral medication to people with HIV along with PrEP, a medication taken by HIV-negative people to prevent infection. They offered free HIV tests along with condoms and lubricant, which reduce the risk of HIV transmission.
The funding cuts shut down the society’s services, leaving more than 1,200 clients without access to PrEP medication and 262 of the group’s 350 staffers without work.
Outside of NGOs, legal work for openly transgender people in Nepal is virtually nonexistent, executive director Manisha Dhakal says. Which is why between 35% and 45% of the society’s former staffers turned to sex work, she says.
The risks are immense, she says, for both her former employees and the public. Too fearful of discrimination to go to hospitals for antiretroviral drugs, many transgender people have stopped taking them — significantly increasing their risk of transmission. Lubricant and condoms are expensive, so some are having unprotected sex. And PrEP distribution has been halted to everyone but pregnant and lactating women.
“One decision from one powerful country — all these services are cut,” Dhakal says.
She sits at the society’s now-hushed headquarters, the bookshelf behind her lined with framed certificates from USAID, commending her organization for saving lives. Now, she says, those lives are on the line.
“The Trump administration’s executive order will cause people to die,” she says.
Her fears are echoed by Dr. Sarbesh Sharma, director of Nepal’s National Centre for AIDS and STD Control. Viruses like HIV, he warns, do not respect borders.
“Borders are for humans,” he says. “We have a lot of migrant workers, we have a lot of overseas students, we have an open border with India. So those make it not only a Nepal concern, it can become a global concern.”
As a result of the drop in global aid, HIV testing fell by 22% in countries with high infection rates, while funding for condoms was cut by more than 90% in some places, according to data released in June by the United Nations agency that fights HIV.
All 15 aid workers-turned-sex workers interviewed by the AP recognize the risks. One, who is HIV positive, says she lives in fear of transmitting the disease, yet still hits the streets nearly every night to stave off starvation.
Most of the workers spent months trying to find other jobs, frequently being rejected the moment the employers realized they were transgender. Many have been forced to have unprotected sex with clients. Nearly all have faced violence, including gang rape.
None see a way out.
Aashika Tamang, who spent 16 years working in HIV prevention, longs for the days where she liaised with volunteers and social workers. Now, she says, she is abused at least once a week and largely liaises with addicts.
There’s a surreal whiplash when she bumps into fellow sex workers who once came to her for help.
“I used to meet them during the day,” she says. “Now I meet them during the night.”
This story was funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center. The Associated Press is responsible for all content.
On her first night as a sex worker, Lama sat in her apartment, frozen by indecision and fear. Her makeup was on and her wig was in place, but her mind was in meltdown.
How had she gotten here?
Brainy and warm, with a gentle smile and soft brown eyes rimmed by glasses, she — like most of her former colleagues — had battled so many barriers on her path to aid work. Raised by a conservative family amid crippling poverty, she spent her childhood selling eggs in the local market to pay for her first years of school, where a teacher sexually assaulted her.
Lama finished high school thanks to a government scholarship for impoverished students. She then studied education at a university, but was unable to finish her degree amid harassment from teachers and classmates.
Her salvation came in 2016, when she was recruited by Friends Hetauda, named for the industrial transit city where it is based. Lama searched for, counseled and tested those at high risk of HIV, including the sex workers who service a stream of travelers.
Her father, furious over her job and gender identity, kicked her out. But Lama had found her calling; she knew she was saving lives. A series of promotions eventually netted her around 30,000 Nepalese rupees ($200) per month — enough to rent a one-room apartment.
And then one day in February 2025, she walked into her office and ran into Friends Hetauda’s coordinator, Kiran Thapa. The group’s funding, Thapa told her, was gone. Of its 17 staffers, the U.S. aid cuts had left Lama and 13 others out of a job.
Lama was terrified. She couldn’t go home; her father had made that clear. How would she survive?
In the months that followed, she watched with worry as her peers’ mental health worsened and as more began testing positive for HIV.
She applied for local government jobs she was initially told she had, only to be rejected once she showed up in person. A hotel manager offered her a position as a cleaner, then grabbed her breasts during a training session. The job was hers, he told her — but only if she had sex with him and his friends. Lama refused and was dismissed.
She started skipping meals and could no longer afford medicine or rent. Her landlord threatened to throw her out.
And so she began talking to her former colleagues about their new roles in the sex industry. Of the 14 Friends Hetauda staffers who lost their jobs, between 8 and 10 moved to sex work, says Thapa.
Lama realized it was sex work or starve. She knew where to go: the dark spot by the highway where she’d once tested sex workers and their clients for HIV.
For two nights, she hung back and observed. On her third night, she committed herself to landing a client. She began getting ready around 8 p.m., putting on her makeup and wig, along with a traditional white kurta and red leggings. By 9 p.m., she looked the part, but didn’t feel it.
And so she sat, paralyzed, in her apartment.
At 11:30, she forced herself down to the highway. After two hours, the first man approached. “You wanna go?” he asked. She didn’t, but climbed onto his motorbike anyway, after he promised to pay her 1,000 rupees ($6.50).
At his home, she was sick with fear. “Why do I have to do this?” she thought. “Is this really my path?”
When it was over, he shortchanged her, paying her just 700 rupees ($4.50), and dropped her along the highway.
Back at home, she washed off her makeup and crawled into bed. But sleep wouldn’t come.
Gripped by anxiety, her body grew hot and her thoughts grew dark. She thought about death, and whether it was the kinder alternative.
She thought, too, about her old job. That work had been her life’s purpose.
What was her purpose now?
In the unlit alleys, dense jungles and private homes where the workers service their clients, safety does not exist.
“All of my sex worker friends, including myself, who are involved in this profession are victims of violence,” Lama says.
Ironically, the workers say, it is their powers of persuasion and knowledge of the risks — skills honed through their counseling and outreach roles — that sometimes save them.
Lama’s training helped her remain outwardly calm the night a man pulled a knife on her, held it to her throat and threatened to cut her unless she had sex with him. She bought time, telling him he’d be at risk of HIV if he raped her, given how many other customers she’d been with. Then she shoved him and ran to a bathroom near a gas station, hiding there until friends rescued her.
A few hours’ drive to the north, in the capital, Kathmandu, Sujata Chaudhary frequently draws on her 11 years of work in HIV prevention to explain the dangers of unprotected sex to clients who try to force it upon her. Sometimes, she says, the men back down. Sometimes they don’t. She contracted syphilis as a result.
One night, she managed to talk her way out of a house where two men were threatening to release their large dogs on her. Another night, she confronted several police officers who had beaten her with their batons as she stood near a tea vendor, calling on her knowledge of the law to challenge them.
But often the abuse is impossible to stop. Two men once picked up Chaudhary and a friend and drove them against their will to a hostel an hour away, where more than a dozen other men were waiting. Chaudhary, slender and sensitive, with a tattoo on her arm that says “Aama,” or mother, in honor of the woman she likens to God, was no match for them. She begged them to stop, but was raped by at least eight men. She and her friend were eventually released, and forced to walk hours back to town.
She refuses to go to customers’ homes or hotel rooms now. But she has to keep working. Her father died years ago, leaving her family dependent on her income. She cannot bring herself to tell them, including her Aama, how she earns it.
Barsha Magar, who served at Friends Hetauda for 16 years as a peer educator, outreach worker and data collector, feared she would be killed when she transitioned to sex work. Two months into the job, she nearly was. Two soldiers who initially seemed kind took her into the jungle, held her at gunpoint and raped her while holding her mouth shut to stifle her screams.
She wipes away tears as she recalls the terror of that night. For two weeks, she was too traumatized to return to the streets.
For Bharati Thapa, a former Friends Hetauda field supervisor and peer educator, the violence started the very first night she stood along the highway. Two Indian tourists picked her up and took her to a guest house, where another eight men were waiting, all of them drunk. She was physically assaulted and raped before fleeing the house, clothing torn, body covered in scratches, and screaming for a guard to let her out through the locked gates.
She sits one recent evening in the darkened office of Friends Hetauda.
“My life is at risk now,” she says softly. “I fear that I may contract HIV and sexually transmitted infections. I fear being beaten up and harassed by customers. I fear the police taking me away at night. How can I not be afraid? There is risk from all sides.”
Back on the side of the highway, Lama has landed another customer and disappeared into the dark.
It is Friday, the busiest night of the week. Around 1 a.m., the police arrive, wielding long batons. The sex workers scatter, including Lama. It is time to go home, she says. She has made a total of 1,600 rupees ($10.50) from five clients. It’s a relatively good haul; sometimes she goes home with nothing.
“I wish it was fair,” she says. “I wish I could live with my identity. I wish I could walk in the way that makes me happy. I know what is right and wrong. I am aware of the road I am taking.”
But without a new funding source, she says, there is no way off this road. And so this is where she will return, night after night, to stand alongside the women she once tried to save, in a bid to save herself.
Journalist Tulsi Rauniyar contributed to this report.
A transgender sex worker stands next to a busy highway waiting for clients to approach her in Hetauda, Nepal, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Barsha Magar, a former aid worker who turned to sex work to survive after losing her job amid the U.S. foreign aid cuts, poses for a photo, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Hetauda, Nepal. Magar spent 16 years as an HIV outreach worker and peer educator for the NGO Friends Hetauda before turning in desperation to sex work, where she has been raped at gunpoint. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Sujata Chaudhary, who is transgender and a former aid worker who turned to sex work to survive after losing her job amid the U.S. foreign aid cuts, poses for a photo in Kathmandu, Nepal, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
An empty condom dispenser hangs outside an office in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Rubi Lama, who is transgender and a former aid worker who turned to sex work to survive after losing her job amid the U.S. foreign aid cuts, poses for a photo after her transformation as she heads out to work on the streets, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Hetauda, Nepal. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Rubi Lama, who is transgender and a former aid worker who turned to sex work to survive after losing her job amid the U.S. foreign aid cuts, poses for a photo before her transformation as she heads out to work on the streets, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Hetauda, Nepal. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Men enter a club in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Bharati Thapa, a former HIV outreach worker who turned to sex work to survive after losing her job amid the U.S. foreign aid cuts, poses for a portrait outside the office of her former NGO, Wednesday, May 20, 2026, in Hetauda, Nepal. Thapa, who suffered a gang rape on her first night as a sex worker, says she fears her new line of work will kill her. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Princy Tamang, a former HIV outreach worker who turned to sex work to survive after losing her job amid the U.S. foreign aid cuts, poses for a portrait, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Hetauda, Nepal. Tamang, who has endured beatings from clients and has been forced to have sex without condoms since transitioning to sex work, fears she will contract HIV. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
