Joby Aviation has confirmed New York, Florida and Texas as the first markets for its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, operating under the federal eVTOL Integrated Pilot Program (EIPP). Commercial flights are planned around the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, according to Chief Policy Officer Greg Bowles.
The six-propeller electric aircraft entered formal FAA certification in 2018 and is now approaching type certification. Under the EIPP executive order, Joby can run limited commercial operations in selected states before full type certification. Florida was among the first EIPP states, and Joby marked the milestone last week by recreating the world's first commercial flight — the 1914 St. Petersburg-to-Tampa route — with its own aircraft.
The vehicle currently in testing targets routes up to 100 miles. To keep fares competitive, Joby is prioritizing high-density, bidirectional corridors that minimize empty deadhead legs. The JFK-to-Manhattan route, currently flown by Blade Air Mobility — which Joby acquired — takes about seven minutes and starts at $249. Joby plans to begin replacing Blade's helicopter trips with its own aircraft over the coming year.
"As we get rid of the current constraint for vertical lift, which is noise, it comes to supply chain. And we gotta turn the knob on manufacturing," Bowles said. The six-propeller architecture underpins both the safety case and the noise profile: each of the six motor stations is dual-redundant, so a complete propeller failure requires two independent failures at a single station. In a hover with one station lost, the aircraft compensates by adjusting the diagonal motor and maintaining controlled flight on the remaining four. Bowles said the quiet acoustic signature — a deliberate outcome of using multiple smaller electric motors rather than one large rotor — is critical to community acceptance and regulatory approval.
On airspace integration, Joby cited its acquisition of autonomous flight company X-Wing, which has developed camera, microphone and LiDAR systems to detect other aircraft and drones. The company said it recently completed the world's first coast-to-coast autonomous flight series with a large aircraft and announced new defense contracts with the Air Force the day before the interview. Bowles also pointed to the FAA's new digital air traffic control system, BNACCS, which replaces analog infrastructure that had relied on eBay-sourced components and will enable smarter airspace management for eVTOL operations.
Bowles expressed confidence that broad public access to Joby's service will come well before 2035, though he stopped short of a firm date. He cited a landing demonstration at Toyota's North American headquarters in Plano, Texas — touching down at half-court on a basketball court with landowner permission — as evidence that the aircraft requires minimal ground infrastructure. Toyota is a key partner. Manufacturing scale, he said, is now the primary variable determining how quickly the service can expand beyond its initial dense urban markets.