By David Shepardson
April 28 (Reuters) – Joby Aviation is conducting a week-long test of the first point-to-point air taxi demonstration flights in New York City as the company gets closer to winning government approval to deploy commercial electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.
The tests this week of the aircraft known as eVTOLs are under a pilot program announced by the Federal Aviation Administration in September.
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. More tests are planned all week.
Air taxi firms are racing to secure approvals and commercialize air taxi aircraft to meet the growing demand for faster and more sustainable urban transportation. They tout eVTOLs that can take off and land vertically to ferry travelers to airports or for short city trips, allowing them to beat traffic.
The company aims to connect Lower Manhattan and Midtown to JFK in under 10 minutes for a trip that could take more than an hour with New York congestion.
Joby said it continues to make progress in the final stages of FAA certification after the recent flight of its first conforming aircraft, a needed step before FAA pilots can carry out additional tests.
“Building on a series of piloted demonstrations across the San Francisco Bay Area, the New York campaign puts the aircraft in real flight routes and real 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 program in June in an executive order. A number of other countries, including India, China, and the United Arab Emirates, are working to speed deployment of eVTOLs, which could begin carrying paying passengers as early as later this year.
In 2022, Delta Air Lines invested $60 million and got a small equity stake in a partnership that will aim to eventually offer passengers air taxi transport to and from airports in New York and Los Angeles.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Edward Tobin)
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