Joby tests air taxi flights in New York
Air taxi companies are racing against time to secure regulatory approvals and bring air taxi aircraft to market in response to growing demand for faster and more sustainable urban transport
ATT Desk Report 
Joby Aviation is conducting a week-long series of point-to-point air taxi demonstration flights in New York City as the company moves closer to securing government approval to deploy commercial electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
This week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is testing the aircraft, known as eVTOLs, under a pilot programme announced in September, reports Reuters.
A Joby aircraft on Monday departed from JFK Airport in New York and landed at the city's existing heliport network, including Downtown Skyport and the West 30th Street and East 34th Street heliports in Midtown. Further tests are scheduled throughout the week.
Air taxi companies are racing against time to secure regulatory approvals and bring air taxi aircraft to market in response to growing demand for faster and more sustainable urban transport. They are promoting eVTOLs, which can take off and land vertically, to ferry travellers to airports or on short city journeys, helping them avoid traffic congestion.
The company aims to connect Lower Manhattan and Midtown with JFK in under 10 minutes, a journey that can take more than an hour amid New York's notorious traffic.
Joby said it continues to make progress in the final stages of FAA certification following the recent flight of its first conforming aircraft, a key milestone before FAA pilots can conduct additional tests.
"Building on a series of piloted demonstrations across the San Francisco Bay Area, the New York campaign puts the aircraft on real flight routes and in real-world environments in one of the world's most dynamic cities, demonstrating the acoustics and performance metrics that are critical to unlocking the urban aerial ridesharing market," Joby said.
President Donald Trump directed the creation of the programme in June through an executive order. Several other countries, including India, China and the United Arab Emirates, are also working to accelerate the deployment of eVTOLs, which could begin carrying paying passengers as early as later this year.
In 2022, Delta Air Lines invested $60 million for a small equity stake in a partnership aimed at eventually offering air taxi services for passengers travelling to and from airports in New York and Los Angeles.
