Joby Aviation applies to become first certified electric air taxi operator in UAE

Joby Avi­a­tion has con­firmed it has tak­en the first step towards becom­ing a cer­ti­fied air taxi oper­a­tor in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates.

Dur­ing this week’s ICAO AAM Sym­po­sium in Mon­tre­al, JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby Avi­a­tion, met with His Excel­len­cy Saif Mohammed Al Suwai­di, Direc­tor Gen­er­al of the UAE Gen­er­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty (GCAA), and pre­sent­ed Joby’s Let­ter of Intent to ini­ti­ate Joby’s Air Oper­a­tor Cer­tifi­cate appli­ca­tion.

Issued by the GCAA, the Air Oper­a­tor Cer­tifi­cate is required to oper­ate com­mer­cial air trans­port in the UAE. Joby will fol­low a five-stage appli­ca­tion process that will see the com­pa­ny devel­op a full com­ple­ment of air taxi oper­at­ing man­u­als, under­go inspec­tions of its UAE-based facil­i­ties, and com­plete GCAA obser­va­tion of pilot and air­craft mechan­ic train­ing as well as flight oper­a­tions.

Com­ment­ing on this announce­ment, Bevirt said: “There is incred­i­ble momen­tum behind the adop­tion of clean flight across the UAE, and we’re excit­ed to be work­ing with a wide range of part­ners, includ­ing the GCAA, to lay the ground­work for one of the world’s first elec­tric air taxi net­works, deliv­er­ing fast, clean and qui­et jour­neys using our rev­o­lu­tion­ary air­craft.”

Joby involve­ment in the Mid­dle East began in Feb­ru­ary 2024, when the com­pa­ny signed a defin­i­tive agree­ment with Dubai’s Road and Trans­port Author­i­ty (RTA) to launch air taxi ser­vices in the Emi­rate of Dubai.

In April of the same year, Joby expand­ed its part­ner­ship with the UAE through a mul­ti­lat­er­al Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MoU) with the Depart­ment of Munic­i­pal­i­ties and Trans­port — Abu Dhabi (DMT), the Abu Dhabi Depart­ment of Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment (DED) and the Depart­ment of Cul­ture and Tourism — Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi). This was crit­i­cal in help­ing to pave the way for Joby to estab­lish and scale air taxi ser­vices in Abu Dhabi and beyond.

H.E Saif Al Suwai­di said: “The Let­ter of Intent for the oper­a­tor cer­tifi­cate appli­ca­tion from Joby Avi­a­tion marks a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in the UAE’s jour­ney towards becom­ing a glob­al leader in eVTOL oper­a­tions.

“Our readi­ness to sup­port these advanced tech­nolo­gies under­scores our com­mit­ment to fos­ter­ing advanced air mobil­i­ty solu­tions that will be part of the future of trans­porta­tion in the UAE and beyond. We are excit­ed to work close­ly with Joby Avi­a­tion to ensure the high­est stan­dards of safe­ty and effi­cien­cy as we advance towards the real­iza­tion of com­mer­cial eVTOL oper­a­tions in our skies.”

Joby com­plet­ed a sim­i­lar process to receive its U.S. Part 135 Air Car­ri­er Cer­tifi­cate from the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion in May 2022 and has oper­at­ed tra­di­tion­al air­craft in the U.S. for more than two years, refin­ing aspects of the Company’s intend­ed air taxi oper­a­tions while using its pro­pri­etary Ele­va­teOS soft­ware sys­tem.

When oper­a­tional, Joby’s elec­tric air taxi is designed to car­ry a pilot and four pas­sen­gers at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, with a jour­ney from Dubai Inter­na­tion­al Air­port to Palm Jumeirah, which typ­i­cal­ly takes 45 min­utes by car, expect­ed to take just 10 min­utes.