Joby Aviation completed its acquisition of Blade Air Mobility’s passenger flight services on Friday. On the same day, Blade’s medical transportation unit began trading under its new name, Strata Critical Medical, with its own listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
According to Strata, Joby has elected to pay the first $80 million installment of the $125 million price agreed on August 4 in stock. An additional $35 million will be paid in two tranches, 12 and 18 months from now, based on Joby retaining key employees such as Blade founder and CEO Rob Wiesenthal and achieving certain financial performance targets. A further $10 million in indemnity holdbacks, payable in cash or stock, will also be paid at a later date.
Joby has said that Blade will provide it with a network of private terminals and an established customer base in regions such as New York and Southern Europe. The eVTOL aircraft manufacturer believes this will provide part of the foundation for its planned air taxi services.
Blade’s passenger operations, which currently use chartered helicopters provided by other operators, will continue as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Joby under the leadership of Wiesenthal. Strata, which has been part of Blade’s asset-light business model, arranges aircraft for organ transportation and other medical flights.
“By combining Joby’s aircraft with Blade’s established network, we’re creating an unmatched foundation for bringing quiet air travel to the market,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby. “Blade’s loyal flyers will be among the first to experience this new mode of transportation, and over time, we look forward to making it even easier to access, integrated seamlessly into the apps and services people already use every day.”
Joby is working to complete FAA type certification in time to start operations in 2026. It has said that the first air taxi services are likely to be launched in the UAE, followed by various U.S. cities.