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Joby Aviation to install first electric air taxi charger in Greater New York City Region after agreement with Helo Holdings

Joby Avi­a­tion has today (Tues­day) announced a defin­i­tive agree­ment with Helo Hold­ings to install the first air taxi charg­er in the greater New York City region at the company’s heli­port in Kearny, New Jer­sey.

The agree­ment, which pro­vides Joby with an oper­a­tional base for its elec­tric air taxi in the NYC region, builds on the part­ner­ship already estab­lished between Joby and HHI in Novem­ber 2023, when Kearny served as a tem­po­rary home base for Joby’s air­craft.

As part of the agree­ment, HHI will also upgrade its elec­tri­cal infra­struc­ture to sup­port the instal­la­tion of Joby’s Glob­al Elec­tric Avi­a­tion Charg­ing Sys­tem (GEACS), designed to sup­port the safe and effi­cient oper­a­tion of all elec­tric air­craft under devel­op­ment today, includ­ing Joby’s.

JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby, said: “We’re pleased to expand our part­ner­ship with HHI as we pre­pare to install our GEACS charg­ing sys­tem at Kearny Heli­port. Kearny is expect­ed to become the first heli­port with an air taxi charg­er in the tri-state area and enable the launch of our qui­et, emis­sions-free air taxi ser­vice in the greater New York City region.”

First opened in 2011, the Kearny heli­port is locat­ed just a two minute flight from Man­hat­tan. It is the largest ver­ti­cal-lift facil­i­ty on the east coast, with 27 park­ing spots for heli­copters and plans to expand to 32. The heli­port pro­vides ground ser­vices as well as hangar space for main­te­nance oper­a­tions to heli­copter oper­a­tors in the NYC region, one of the busiest low-alti­tude cor­ri­dors in the world.

Joby com­plet­ed sev­er­al flights at Kearny in prepa­ra­tion for the Company’s exhi­bi­tion flight in New York City at an event host­ed by the New York City Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion and May­or Eric Adams. The city has com­mit­ted to elec­tri­fy the Down­town Man­hat­tan Heli­port to enable elec­tric air taxi oper­a­tions.

Jeff Hyman, Founder and CEO of HHI, added: “We con­tin­ue to expand our foot­print in Kearny in sup­port of one of the busiest low-alti­tude cor­ri­dors in the world, and we’re thrilled to part­ner with Joby, one of the lead­ing devel­op­ers of elec­tric air taxis, to bring the next wave of qui­et air­craft to res­i­dents of
the tri-state area.”

The GEACS charg­ing inter­face is already in use at Joby’s flight test cen­tre in Mari­na, Cal­i­for­nia and at Edwards Air Force Base. Joby recent­ly announced a defin­i­tive agree­ment with Clay Lacy Avi­a­tion to install a charg­ing sys­tem at John Wayne Air­port (SNA) in Orange Coun­ty, CA.

And in 2022, Joby announced a mul­ti-year, mul­ti-city com­mer­cial and oper­a­tional part­ner­ship with Delta Air Lines to deliv­er seam­less air­port trips for its cus­tomers across sev­er­al loca­tions, includ­ing Los Ange­les and New York City.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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