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Joby Aviation and Mukamalah sign agreement to introduce Joby’s eVTOL aircraft to Saudi Arabia

Joby Avi­a­tion has signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MoU) with Muka­malah, a whol­ly owned sub­sidiary of Sau­di Aram­co, the oper­a­tor of the world’s largest fleet of cor­po­rate air­craft, to intro­duce Joby’s air­craft to the King­dom of Sau­di Ara­bia.

The MoU, signed today (Tues­day), con­tem­plates the par­ties work­ing togeth­er to engage with key avi­a­tion stake­hold­ers, includ­ing The Sau­di Gen­er­al Author­i­ty of Civ­il Avi­a­tion (GACA), to expe­dite Joby’s entry into the Sau­di Ara­bia mar­ket, lead­ing to the direct pur­chase of Joby air­craft to be used in Mukamalah’s oper­a­tions.

JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO, Joby Avi­a­tion, said: “Sau­di Ara­bia presents a remark­able oppor­tu­ni­ty for our tech­nol­o­gy and the scope and scale of Mukamalah’s oper­a­tions make them a nat­ur­al part­ner for us.

“We’re look­ing for­ward to sup­port­ing Muka­malah as they intro­duce emis­sions-free air­craft to their fleet and we’re excit­ed to explore wider oppor­tu­ni­ties across the region, in sup­port of the Kingdom’s com­mit­ment to sus­tain­abil­i­ty, which is a pil­lar of Vision 2030, and their over­all goal of reach­ing net-zero emis­sions by 2060.”

The direct sale of air­craft to busi­ness cus­tomers such as Muka­malah and gov­ern­ment part­ners like the U.S. Depart­ment of Defense forms one pil­lar of Joby’s com­mer­cial­iza­tion strat­e­gy, along­side the direct oper­a­tion of Joby air­craft in core mar­kets such as the U.S. and the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, and part­nered oper­a­tions in oth­er mar­kets.

Muka­malah oper­ates 55 air­craft from dif­fer­ent fleets, serv­ing 13 air­ports through­out Sau­di Ara­bia, nine of which are ful­ly man­aged and oper­at­ed by Muka­malah, along with more than 300 heli­pads, both on- and off-shore.

Cap­tain Khalid Alna­tour, CEO, Muka­malah, said: “As part of our ongo­ing com­mit­ment to achiev­ing the Kingdom’s sus­tain­abil­i­ty goal, we are proud to be work­ing with Joby to explore intro­duc­ing emis­sions-free air­craft to our fleet and to the King­dom.

“Over the past years, we have already invest­ed in a more sus­tain­able future, includ­ing tak­ing steps in Sus­tain­able Avi­a­tion Fuel test­ing, sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of hydro­gen solu­tions in the avi­a­tion ecosys­tem, and sup­port­ing the Kingdom’s green ini­tia­tives by deliv­er­ing sus­tain­able avi­a­tion solu­tions.

“We are excit­ed to work with Joby and we look for­ward to fur­ther­ing our shared goals as we strength­en our part­ner­ship and devel­op fur­ther inno­v­a­tive sus­tain­able solu­tions togeth­er.”

Joby’s air­craft is designed to car­ry a pilot and up to four pas­sen­gers at speeds of up to 200 mph (321 km/h), offer­ing high-speed mobil­i­ty with a frac­tion of the noise pro­duced by heli­copters and zero oper­at­ing emis­sions.

A spokesper­son for GACA, the Sau­di Gen­er­al Author­i­ty of Civ­il Avi­a­tion, said: “We are proud to be work­ing togeth­er with Joby and Muka­malah on the reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work nec­es­sary to sup­port the intro­duc­tion of eVTOL air­craft. These ini­tia­tives will help the King­dom of Sau­di Ara­bia meet its cli­mate goals and steer the nation towards a sus­tain­able future.”

In Novem­ber 2023, Joby’s air­craft became the first air taxi to fly in New York City, build­ing on a num­ber of recent suc­cess­es includ­ing the launch of pro­duc­tion at the Company’s Pilot Pro­duc­tion Line in Cal­i­for­nia in June 2023 and the first ever deliv­ery of an elec­tric air taxi to the U.S. Depart­ment of Defense in Sep­tem­ber 2023.

Joby is list­ed on the New York Stock Exchange and has raised more than $2 bil­lion of fund­ing to date, includ­ing invest­ments from Toy­ota, Delta Air Lines, SK Tele­com, Uber and Bail­lie Gif­ford.

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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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