Praveen Vetrivel has spent nearly two decades building and financing aviation businesses.
Today, he is CEO of SLI, the aerospace investment arm of Libra Group, where he focuses on space assets and emerging aviation technologies including electric aircraft, autonomous cargo drones and next-generation propulsion systems.
Before joining SLI, Vetrivel helped build helicopter lessor LCI into a global player, overseeing more than US $12 billion in commercial jet and helicopter transactions before the company’s sale to Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Co (SMFL).
SLI has already placed orders with Beta Technologies and Elroy Air and is evaluating several other manufacturers as it positions itself for aviation’s next chapter.
Zag Air sits down with Praveen to discuss why advanced air mobility remains investable despite industry setbacks, where he sees the strongest commercial opportunities emerging and how leasing could help accelerate the sector’s path to scale.
Zag Air: How did Libra Group arrive at advanced air mobility?
Praveen: “Libra was set up in 2003 to diversify away from shipping where the founding family had been active for nearly 30 years. One of the first moves was into aircraft leasing because of the obvious parallels with shipping as a transportation asset class. That initial portfolio was sold just before the financial crisis for just under a billion dollars. We came back into aviation in 2009 with widebody aircraft and later freighters which also performed very well.
“In parallel, we were constantly asking what comes next. In 2010 we analysed adjacent asset classes including engines, simulators and helicopters. Helicopters stood out because of the links to the maritime and offshore sectors we already understood. LCI became a substantial business and, as it grew, we started looking again at the next evolution. eVTOL and advanced air mobility emerged as the most compelling answers. From the outside, it may look like a series of jumps but the progression was actually quite logical.”
Zag Air: Why is the leasing model particularly well suited to emerging aviation technologies?
Praveen: “Lessors can play a critical role in commercialising frontier aviation. With lease yields reflecting an early-mover risk premium, and with financing structures supported by discounted purchase prices, there is potential to unlock upside for the asset owner, the OEM and the operator. Being a first-mover lessor also creates advantages that compound over time. You build data on utilisation patterns, maintenance costs, residual values and insurance performance that nobody else has. For operators, leasing removes a significant amount of technology risk. This is a fast-moving sector. If the technology evolves, operators are not left carrying the residual risk. They can simply transition to newer assets over time.”
Zag Air: What role should lessors play in the advanced air mobility ecosystem?
Praveen: “We are trying to accelerate the development of financial infrastructure around these asset classes. If you look at commercial aviation today, there is an enormous range of financing instruments available. Operating leases, EETCs, ABS structures and a deep pool of lenders. That ecosystem does not yet exist for frontier aviation. Its absence is a constraint on growth.
“Our goal is to help build that infrastructure rather than wait for someone else to de-risk the sector first. It is worth remembering that around half of the world’s commercial aircraft are leased rather than owned outright. Leasing is deeply embedded in aviation and there is every reason to think it will become equally important for the next generation of aircraft.”
Zag Air: Where do you see the first commercially viable markets emerging?
Praveen: “When we entered this space five or six years ago, we had a ten-year view. That has not really changed. We are now talking about a three-year horizon before these assets begin entering the market in meaningful numbers. The more important question is not whether it happens. It is where it happens first.
“We have always focused on use cases where the value proposition is obvious. Cargo operations in remote locations, time-critical logistics such as pharmaceuticals, blood and organ transfers and selected passenger services linking underserved regional airports. Those applications do not require a revolution in urban infrastructure. That is where we see the most credible near-term market.”
Zag Air: You met more than 30 OEMs before placing your first orders. What were you looking for?
Praveen: “We focused on three things. First, the team. At these timescales, people matter as much as the product. Second, simplicity. We are more drawn to evolution than revolution. Technologies that fit into existing ecosystems tend to succeed more often than those that require entirely new systems to be built around them. There is a useful analogy with the compact disc. Manufacturers chose a diameter that fit shelves designed for cassettes. It was not technically optimal but it worked within the reality of the market.
“Third, runway. These projects always take longer than expected. We wanted to understand who was backing the company and whether there was enough capital to reach certification and commercialisation. On that basis, we chose Beta and Elroy. Pretty much every argument we made internally for those choices has held up.”
Zag Air: Can you share any indicative delivery timelines for your Beta and Elroy positions?
Praveen: “Based on publicly available information, Beta has a $3.9 billion order backlog and is targeting initial CTOL deliveries in late 2026 and early 2027, followed by VTOL deliveries during 2027 and early 2028. The company has been ramping production and recently benefited from inclusion in the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program.
“Elroy expects production with its manufacturing partner Kratos to begin at the end of 2026, with deliveries anticipated during 2027. As with any new aircraft programme, timelines can move but those are the broad windows we are currently planning around.”
Zag Air: How do you balance a multi-decade investment thesis with investor expectations for shorter-term returns?
Praveen: “This is one of the biggest misconceptions in the sector. A lot of capital approaches frontier aviation through a technology-investing lens. That works for software where the marginal cost of adding customers is very low. Physical assets are different. Every new customer requires additional manufacturing, capital and financing. The second misconception is treating this as a three-year return cycle. These timelines are measured in decades. We entered eVTOL with a ten-year horizon and that has not meaningfully changed. Leasing, with its focus on long-term income rather than exit multiples, is actually very well suited to that reality.”
Zag Air: You mention cargo operations as a high-value proposition. How about urban air taxis?
Praveen: “If your product requires transforming the infrastructure it operates within, that is a much harder commercial proposition. To make urban air taxis work at scale, you need vertiports. Getting planning permission for vertiports in major cities is going to be extraordinarily difficult. You only need to think about protected green spaces in London to understand the challenge.”
“There is also a simple time arithmetic problem. If a flight takes 20 minutes but passengers spend 20 minutes getting to and from a vertiport at either end, much of the benefit disappears. We remain unconvinced about mass urban air taxi operations. That does not mean we are sceptical about the broader category. We think the strongest early opportunities are likely to emerge in regional connectivity and other routes where the value proposition is immediately clear and infrastructure requirements are much lower.”
Zag Air: Does the overlap between advanced air mobility and the defence sector factor into your thinking?
Praveen: “It is a significant factor. Defence contracts are one of the clearest signals we look for when assessing OEMs because dual-use platforms have a greater chance of surviving the long development timelines associated with certification. The contracts we are most interested in involve training, troop transport and cargo operations rather than combat roles. They extend the financial runway and generate operational data that helps mature the platform.
“We also pay close attention to regulatory tailwinds. There is currently meaningful political pressure in the United States to accelerate approvals for some of these programmes. Combined with a dual-use business model, that creates a more credible path to commercialisation.”
Zag Air: What does the next phase look like for SLI?
Praveen: “We are entering a more proactive phase. For several years, much of our work was analytical. We were mapping the ecosystem, studying regulations and developing financing structures. Now we are moving into execution. Even if deliveries are still 24 months away, the documentation, certification work and financing arrangements need to be developed today.
“We have our orders with Beta and Elroy and are in active discussions with five additional manufacturers. We will remain selective. We are not trying to back every entrant. We expect this market to consolidate around a small number of major players, much as commercial aviation has done. We want our partners to be among them.”
