Describing it as “the world’s first ePlane,” Harbour Air Seaplanes took it’s magni500 powered seaplane for a short flight today departing from Richmond, British Columbia. Harbour Air is further claiming that the place is “world’s first all-electric commercial aircraft.”

The company, which offers a number of services transporting people and goods between Victoria, British Columbia and Vancouver/Richmond, has been working on their electric seaplane project with magniX, a company that specializes in electric motors for airplanes.

Today, we made history. Launching the world’s first electric commercial aircraft retrofitted with a 750 horsepower all-electric magni500 propulsion system. Thank you to our amazing maintenance team and our partners at @MagniX for all your efforts! Together, we did it! 👏 #ePlane pic.twitter.com/Rhw35BRnqB — Harbour Air Seaplanes (@HarbourAirLtd) December 10, 2019

The inaugural flight was piloted by Harbour Air CEO and founder Greg McDougall. “Today, we made history,” McDougall said. “I am incredibly proud of Harbour Air’s leadership role in re-defining safety and innovation in the aviation and seaplane industry,” he continued. In a press release, Harbour Air described this flight as the start of “the third era in aviation – the electric age.”

There has been some criticism from the aviation community over the description of the event and the plane. In an article by Isabel Goyer on Plane & Pilot, the reality is that this cannot be accurately described as a commercial aircraft, as it has not yet been certified by the required agencies as commercial.

The article goes on to state that the plane is “not even close to being usable” for commercial flights, due to the fact that the back of the plane is currently filled with battery packs, leaving no room for passengers or cargo.

In their press release, Harbour Air states that they “will now begin the certification and approval process for the propulsion system and the retrofitting of aircraft.” They further state that once approval and certification are received, they plan to convert the rest of their fleet to all-electric using magniX’s technology. They are hopeful for approval and certification in 2021, with commercial flights beginning in 2022.