Dive Brief:
- Leading air taxi developers are moving closer to commercial flights this year, according to recent investor calls.
- Archer Aviation founder and CEO Adam Goldstein said the company “is on track” to begin operations in 2026, and Joby Aviation said in a shareholder letter that initial operations are expected to begin this year.
- Both companies are participating in the Federal Aviation Administration’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program to spur the deployment of advanced air mobility vehicles into U.S. airspace.
Dive Insight:
Air taxis could begin operating this year in New York City, Florida, Texas, North Carolina and locations across the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains and parts of Oklahoma under the FAA program.
“If you think about the first time you saw a Waymo, it felt like science fiction to you,” Goldstein said on the company’s May 11 conference call. “Now the goal is to have half a million people in the biggest cities in the country start to see these aircraft as part of your everyday commute, just like they started to see Waymo every day.”
Goldstein said that Archer submitted applications to the FAA for about a dozen cities in Southern California, Texas and Florida to be part of the first air taxi deployments. The U.S. Department of Transportation is expected to announce the final list of participants later this month, he said.
“Once the finalists are announced, we'll begin working directly with the selected localities to establish the initial operational plans, and then we'll focus on public flights as soon as the second half of the year,” Goldstein said.
Following Joby Aviation’s demonstration flights last month in New York City, founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt said on the company's May 5 earnings call that it is installing charging infrastructure at two Manhattan heliports. “The experience for folks in New York was really indicative, and the excitement was really indicative of the progress that we're making and the opportunities ahead of us,” he said on the call.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey opened a solicitation last month to build and operate a vertiport at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Bevirt also said the company is working with Orlando International Airport to develop a vertiport for air taxis.
Boeing subsidiary Wisk Aero said last week that it had successfully conducted the first flight of its latest aircraft at its test facility in Hollister, California. Wisk is also participating in the FAA’s eIPP program in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation. Unlike Archer and Joby’s piloted aircraft, Wisk is developing a fully autonomous, pilotless aircraft that it expects to fly commercially by 2030.
Supernal, Hyundai’s air mobility subsidiary, announced the appointment of Farhan Gandhi as chief technology officer last week. “Farhan joins us as CTO at a pivotal moment as we enter a new phase of focused technical execution,” the company said in a post on LinkedIn. The Seoul Economic Daily reported in March that Supernal cut 80% of its staff, including C-suite executives, and may be “stepping back from its future aviation business.” The LinkedIn post said, “Stay tuned for more updates later this year.”
