Blade Returns to NBAA as New Owner Joby Preps for Service

Under new ownership, Blade returns to NBAA-BACE to provide its connector service for convention-goers between the Las Vegas Convention Center exhibit hall and the aircraft static display at Henderson Executive Airport (KHND). Joby Aviation acquired the helicopter services company’s charter brokerage in August under a $125 million deal. This comes as Joby prepares for its first eVTOL certification and entry into air-taxi service within the next year.

According to Joby, the acquisition is set to unlock “immediate market access and infrastructure across key urban corridors in New York City and Southern Europe.”

Last year, Blade flew more than 50,000 passengers in helicopters. Trips included flights using dedicated bases at New York JFK International Airport (KJFK) and Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR), as well as using heliports in Manhattan. The company has also operated services to sites along France’s Côte d’Azur region.

Joby is planning to leverage Blade, not only through operations but also through a streamlined experience that involves partnerships with other entities, including Uber and company investor Delta Air Lines, said Joby chief policy officer Greg Bowles. Joby announced plans last month to expand its partnership with Uber to bring Blade to the former company’s rideshare app.

“So now, instead of having to book the Blade, you can book the Uber and coordinate it with a one-button push to get your Blade very efficiently,” Bowles said.

He outlined Joby’s vision for the customer experience: customers “are going to log into the app and say…‘I need to get to the west side of town,’ and click on that. They’re given a ride. An Uber car picks them up, drives them to their local heliport or their local airport.” At that time, the Blade operation will be there for their flight.

He cited as an example a customer who is in Manhattan who needs to get to KJFK. That customer may face an hour in traffic. “If you were to do that flight with Joby, it’s about a seven-minute flight. You can do this today with Blade.”

Costs for Blade service currently run about $250, depending on flight times. “That’s really convenient if you're rushed for time,” he said, adding, “We’re hoping to put that on the market at about the cost of the Uber Black, which is $120 to $130.”

Joby acquired Blade, he explained, because it is already running desired routes. “We’re going to integrate these aircraft into those routes, to start taking over those routes,” Bowles said. “That’s helping us pre-coordinate that whole software side of the equation. As we finish up type certification of this aircraft, add it to our [Part] 135 [certificate], and then integrate it into the Blade, the vision really starts to come to reality.”

Joby, meanwhile, is progressing toward certification of its four-passenger vehicle. Bowles noted that the company has worked through the standards that it needs to meet and the methods it is using to demonstrate compliance with federal regulations with the FAA. “We created all those certification plans and got signed off by the FAA, and that is the exciting stuff,” he said. “We’ve already done all the company testing. We’ve already proved we know we can meet all those requirements…and now the FAA is showing up to witness those tests.”

Joby is completing the conforming FAA bench, ground, environmental, and lightning testing. “All of that is going on right now,” Bowles said, estimating that the company has submitted about two-thirds of its requisite testing, and the FAA has signed off on about half of that thus far.

One of the first to be signed off on was not a component, Bowles noted, but the fly-by-wire system. Such systems have been a delaying factor in other aircraft certification programs in the past. Meanwhile, production has geared up on the type inspection authorization conforming aircraft with those flights anticipated toward year-end.

Joby has already amassed 40,000 miles in various test vehicles, he noted. “We’re in this last stretch,” he said. “We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”

He noted that Joby has been intentionally vertically integrated, producing the motors, batteries, electronics, and airframes. “We make so much because we need to control our fate,” he said. “These components didn’t exist at the time [when Joby began its development]. When we got into Covid, we said this was a pretty good idea.”

As for NBAA-BACE, Blade once again is offering flights between the static display and convention center, enabling passengers to fly over Las Vegas traffic. Seats start at $195 for NBAA members and $245 for nonmembers.