Middle East: “RAKTA, Joby, Skyports Collaborate Via MOU, to Launch Air Taxi Service in Ras Al Khaimah by 2027”

The Ras Al Khaimah Trans­port Author­i­ty (RAKTA), Joby Avi­a­tion and Sky­ports Infra­struc­ture announced this week the sign­ing of a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU) for a long-term col­lab­o­ra­tion to launch a pas­sen­ger air taxi ser­vice net­work in the Emi­rate of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) by 2027, reports a press release. 

The sign­ing occurred in the pres­ence of H.H. Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasi­mi, Mem­ber of the UAE Supreme Coun­cil and Ruler of UAE’s Ras Al Khaimah.

The release explains, “Aligned with RAK’s 2030 Mobil­i­ty Mas­ter Plan, the new ser­vice will meet grow­ing demand for fast and con­ve­nient trans­port in Ras Al Khaimah and through­out the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates (UAE). In addi­tion, it will estab­lish an inter-emi­rate cor­ri­dor, con­nect­ing Joby’s planned ser­vice in Dubai to land­mark hos­pi­tal­i­ty devel­op­ments in RAK.”

It con­tin­ues, “This includes Al Mar­jan Island, where the new Wynn Al Mar­jan is set to open in 2027, and Jebel Jais, UAE’s high­est peak. Al Mar­jan Island is cen­tral­ly locat­ed to mul­ti-modal ground trans­porta­tion and will be home to the first ver­ti­port, with addi­tion­al ver­ti­port loca­tions fol­low­ing as part of a phased devel­op­ment approach.”

H.E Esmaeel Hasan Alblooshi, RAKTA Direc­tor Gen­er­al, com­ment­ed, “This part­ner­ship reflects our vision to shape the future of mobil­i­ty by inte­grat­ing advanced trans­port solu­tions with­in its urban and tourism ecosys­tem.”

He con­tin­ued, “This step is an exten­sion of Ras Al Khaimah’s Com­pre­hen­sive Mobil­i­ty Plan 2030, which focus­es on inno­va­tion, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and the inte­gra­tion of trans­port modes.”

At the sign­ing of the MOU

For trav­ellers and com­muters, elec­tric air taxis will mean a dra­mat­ic reduc­tion in trav­el times. For exam­ple, the jour­ney from Dubai Inter­na­tion­al Air­port to Al Mar­jan Island, which can take well over an hour by car, could be less than 15 min­utes in Joby’s air taxi after fly­ing a direct path at a top speed of 200 mph. 

JoeBen Bevirt, CEO and Founder, added, “Our work to deploy an air taxi ser­vice in the UAE is becom­ing a mod­el for how advanced air mobil­i­ty can reshape trans­porta­tion sys­tems glob­al­ly. By bring­ing togeth­er the air­craft, the infra­struc­ture and the reg­u­la­tor from day one, we are cre­at­ing a clear­ly defined path to accel­er­ate the launch of a com­mer­cial ser­vice.”

The col­lab­o­ra­tion is part of Joby’s increas­ing pres­ence in the Mid­dle East includ­ing progress towards car­ry­ing its first pas­sen­gers in Dubai next year. 

Dun­can Walk­er, CEO of Sky­ports, remarked, “Fol­low­ing our MOU with RAKTA in May 2024 to estab­lish the foun­da­tions for a ver­ti­port net­work in RAK, we’re excit­ed to see the project move to the next tan­gi­ble phase of devel­op­ment with Joby as the air­craft OEM and ser­vice launch part­ner.”

He added, “With the strong progress Sky­ports is cur­rent­ly mak­ing on the Dubai Ver­ti­port Net­work in part­ner­ship with Joby, we are best placed to deliv­er air taxi ser­vices to RAK by 2027.”

Back­ground

Ras Al Khaimah is the fourth largest Emi­rate in the UAE with one third of the world’s pop­u­la­tion with­in four hours’ fly­ing time. RAK is viewed as a gate­way to the UAE, Mid­dle East, Africa, India and beyond.

A coastal area of Ras Al Khaimah

The region offers a busi­ness-friend­ly envi­ron­ment with sim­pli­fied cus­tomis­able ser­vices, low oper­at­ing costs, 100 per­cent for­eign own­er­ship, zero per­son­al income tax and one of the world’s low­est cor­po­rate tax rates. It is home to over 50,000 com­pa­nies. 

RAK has a mul­ti­cul­tur­al soci­ety of 0.4 mil­lion peo­ple from 150 coun­tries, offer­ing a high qual­i­ty of life, acces­si­ble lux­u­ry liv­ing, and a serene coastal lifestyle.

RAKTA was estab­lished by Emiri Decree No. (1) in 2008 and is the gov­ern­ment enti­ty respon­si­ble for reg­u­lat­ing and over­see­ing all modes of trans­porta­tion with­in the Emi­rate. Its man­date includes plan­ning infra­struc­ture, licens­ing trans­port activ­i­ties and oper­at­ing pub­lic trans­port. 

For more infor­ma­tion

www.jobyaviation.com

www.skyports.net

https://www.rakta.gov.ae/

(Top image: Joby Avi­a­tion)

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