Middle East: “Joby, Skyports Announce Start of Construction on First Dubai Vertiport” 

Joby Avi­a­tion and Sky­ports announced this week that con­struc­tion has start­ed on the first ver­ti­port of the planned Dubai air taxi net­work, reports a press release. 

Locat­ed at Dubai Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (DXB), this site is being con­struct­ed by Joby part­ners, Dubai Road, and Sky­ports, Roads & Trans­port Author­i­ty (RTA).  

The com­pa­nies cel­e­brat­ed the moment at a cer­e­mo­ny attend­ed by His High­ness Sheikh Ham­dan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Mak­toum, Crown Prince of Dubai, His High­ness Mak­toum bin Mohammed Al Mak­toum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, His Excel­len­cy Mat­tar Al Tay­er, Direc­tor Gen­er­al of the RTA, JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby, as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Sky­ports and the Dubai RTA. 

The DXB ver­ti­port is one of four ini­tial loca­tions that will form a net­work of sites for Joby’s air­craft as the eVTOL com­pa­ny pre­pares to launch its ser­vices in the Emi­rate as soon as Q1 2026, with three addi­tion­al ver­ti­ports planned for devel­op­ment in Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Down­town and Dubai Mari­na. 

The three-storey ver­ti­port build­ing will cov­er an area of approx­i­mate­ly 3,100 sq. metres. The facil­i­ty is to have two land­ing areas, designed to sup­port both eVTOL and con­ven­tion­al heli­copter oper­a­tions. Each land­ing area will be equipped with fast charg­ing tech­nol­o­gy to enable rapid bat­tery recharges between flights, sup­port­ing up to 10 air­craft land­ings per hour. The ver­ti­port has also been designed with the flex­i­bil­i­ty to expand capac­i­ty to accom­mo­date future demand growth.

Pas­sen­ger ameni­ties are designed to pro­vide a seam­less, pre­mi­um expe­ri­ence, includ­ing elec­tron­ic check-in, secu­ri­ty screen­ing, a com­fort­able depar­ture lounge and brief­ing areas. The ver­ti­port can sup­port up to 170,000 pas­sen­gers per year.

Joby Founder and CEO, JoeBen Bevirt, remarked, “Our air taxi ser­vice in Dubai will offer tourists and res­i­dents the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence a rev­o­lu­tion­ary trav­el expe­ri­ence, with faster move­ment between key des­ti­na­tions and breath­tak­ing views of the city sky­line.”

He con­tin­ued, “With the start of con­struc­tion on our air taxi net­work, our shared vision for elec­tric air taxi ser­vice in Dubai is com­ing to life. I’m grate­ful to His High­ness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Mak­toum and to the gov­ern­ment of Dubai for their sup­port and com­mit­ment to inno­va­tion.”

Dun­can Walk­er, CEO of Sky­ports, added, “This is an excit­ing day. The shared vision of Sky­ports, the RTA, Joby Avi­a­tion and the many gov­ern­ment author­i­ties we work with in Dubai and the UAE, is now being realised as we begin con­struc­tion and see the first ver­ti­port come to life.”

He con­tin­ued, “In the com­ing months, we will con­tin­ue to advance our efforts in Dubai while our teams dili­gent­ly work on essen­tial tech­nol­o­gy, reg­u­la­to­ry and oper­a­tional prepa­ra­tions, to ensure a suc­cess­ful launch on day one.” 

Please Watch Video

https://twitter.com/jobyaviation/status/1856336403807817788

Joby’s planned ser­vice was announced as part of an agree­ment signed by the com­pa­ny, the RTA and Sky­ports in Feb­ru­ary, which includes exclu­sive access for the U.S eVTOL com­pa­ny to the Dubai air taxi mar­ket over a six year peri­od.

As part of the process to attain an Air Oper­a­tor Cer­tifi­cate from the UAE’s Gen­er­al Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty, Joby is to demon­strate the readi­ness of its air­craft as well as the company’s train­ing, main­te­nance, oper­a­tions and safe­ty pro­grams for com­mer­cial air trans­port. 

For more infor­ma­tion

www.jobyaviation.com

www.skyports.net

(Images: Joby/Skyports)

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