eVTOL Rivals Race To Prove Air Taxi Use Case in the UAE

Rival eVTOL aircraft developers Joby and Archer are racing to establish their plans for air taxi services in the UAE. The U.S. companies are both getting support from local regulators to establish early use cases in Dubai and Abu Dhabi while they are still working on FAA type certification for their respective four-passenger vehicles.

One of Joby’s test aircraft is flying at the Dubai Airshow this week, while Archer is exhibiting a mockup. On November 9, Joby conducted what it said was the first point-to-point eVTOL flight in the UAE when it landed its aircraft at Al Maktoum International Airport after a 17-minute flight from its test base at Margham.

On Monday, Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority and Joby’s partner Skyports Infrastructure announced the three sites for the vertiports that will form the initial air taxi network. In addition to Dubai International Airport, the locations are the Dubai Mall shopping and entertainment center, the “Atlantis the Royal” resort in Palm Jumeirah, and the American University of Dubai, which is close to the Dubai Marina and Internet City.

In a media briefing on Friday, Didier Papadopoulos, Joby’s president of aircraft OEM, explained that the company’s work with the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is a “qualification program” that it is conducting while it seeks its FAA type certificate. “We are not necessarily getting a type certificate [in the UAE] before [this is complete with] the FAA,” he said. “Our intent is to get approval for specific operations in Dubai.”

Midnight Flies in Abu Dhabi

Also on Friday, Archer announced that it has completed an “in-country” flight test campaign with its Midnight aircraft in Abu Dhabi. The flight profile included vertical takeoff, transition, and wingborne flight as part of a campaign supervised by Abu Dhabi’s Integrated Transport Centre, with the support of the GCAA.

Archer said that the milestone in its plans for its “Launch Edition” air taxi services in the UAE has meant that it has started to receive payments from its local customer, Abu Dhabi Aviation. The aircraft now in Abu Dhabi is the same test vehicle the company has previously flown in the U.S.

“It’s playing an important role now here in the UAE, ensuring the Midnight platform delivers the results we expected while flying in challenging weather environments like the UAE with its sand and heat,” an Archer spokeswoman told AIN. “Additionally, this aircraft is helping our partners and the GCAA get initial experience familiarizing themselves with our flight operations.”

Archer said other preparations for the planned launch of commercial services include work on eVTOL pilot training with Etihad Aviation Training, while Abu Dhabi Aviation personnel are involved in the operational flight trials now being conducted with the demonstrator aircraft. The company has backing from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office and has approval to build vertiports with partners at locations including the Abu Dhabi Cruise Terminal and the Cleveland Clinic.

According to Eric Allison, Joby’s chief product officer, Dubai’s growing population, burgeoning tourism industry, and “horrific” road traffic make it an ideal early use case for eVTOL flights, with the manufacturer having a six-year exclusive agreement covering these services in the emirate. The company and its partners are purposely starting with connections between Dubai’s main airport and popular tourist sites, with Allison hinting that the new casino, due to open in Ras Al Khaimah in 2027, could be another vertiport location.

Papadopoulos explained that the GCAA is following an almost identical process for type certification as the FAA. “They will give us credit for everything we do with the FAA, and they are also engaging with us with our company testing as well, so it is a parallel process,” he told reporters who had questioned how plans for operations could start being put in place before the U.S. regulator issues a type certificate, which is not anticipated until sometime in 2026.

Joby now intends to expand the scope of flight testing in the UAE to include point-to-point trips over populated areas. Papadopoulos indicated that there could be some passenger-carrying flights in the country prior to type certification being complete.

In early November, Joby began power-on ground testing with the first of its FAA-conforming aircraft built for the agency’s type inspection authorization process that concludes the path to certification. Archer has not yet built a conforming example of the Midnight.