Image: Joby AviationJoby is one of the most promising developers of air taxis. Backed by $500 million from Toyota, the company is developing a battery-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the Joby S4. Designed for urban and regional passenger transport, the aircraft accommodates one pilot and four passengers. Pilot production of the Joby S4 is already underway in Marina, California.To launch operations in New York City, Joby acquired Blade Urban Air Mobility last year. Blade already enables helicopter flights for affluent travellers between Manhattan and airports such as JFK or Newark in just five minutes, avoiding up to two hours of traffic and typical airport hassles. Joby aims to replace this service with quiet, electric air taxis as soon as possible, transitioning Blade’s existing customers to the new technology.However, introducing a new aircraft into commercial service requires a years-long certification process, overseen in the US by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Joby is now in the final phase of FAA certification. Following a series of demonstration flights in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company has tested its air taxi in New York City on real flight routes and under real-world conditions. During these tests, Joby demonstrated the acoustics and performance metrics critical for entering the urban air taxi market.From the airport to Manhattan in under ten minutesDuring these demonstration flights, Joby’s air taxi took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and landed at various helipads across the city, including Downtown Skyport and the helipads at West 30th Street and East 34th Street in Midtown, where Blade Air Mobility’s premium passenger lounges are located. These locations represent some of the commercial routes Joby plans for New York, connecting Lower Manhattan and Midtown to JFK in less than 10 minutes.“New York has always been a city that defines the future by demanding better,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby. “We first flew here in 2023, and now we’re showing what the next chapter looks like: a quiet, zero operating emissions air taxi service designed to better serve New Yorkers.” The flights were supported by the US government’s new eIPP initiative for eVTOL programmes.Port Authority supports air taxi programmeThe Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is also a partner in Joby’s eVTOL flights. “The bridges, tunnels, airports, and rail lines that the Port Authority operates move hundreds of millions of people through this region every year, and our job is to make sure that network keeps pace with the future,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole. “This cutting-edge aircraft is exactly the kind of innovation we have a responsibility to test, understand, and help shape for the good of the region and the public.”Joby’s vision for New York is to transform one of the city’s most time-consuming journeys into one of the fastest. Through partnerships with Delta Air Lines and Uber, Joby aims to create a seamless travel experience that integrates ground and air transport into a single journey. In a city where commuters lost an average of 102 hours to traffic congestion in 2025, Joby seeks to reclaim this time by turning the 60- to 120-minute trip to JFK Airport into a flight of under ten minutes.jobyaviation.com, linkedin.com