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Archer plans to transfer its first Midnight air taxi to Abu Dhabi later in 2025.
For years, investors in leading electric air taxi startups Archer and Joby have eagerly awaited the launch of commercial urban air mobility services in major U.S. cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
But as timelines continue to stretch and the reality of the FAA’s somewhat opaque and highly arduous aircraft type certification process fully sets in, the two market leaders are determined to not lose their momentum. Rather than talking up their U.S. launch plans, they are increasingly eyeing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the major international launch market where they will prove out their technology and business case flying real routes with passengers on board.
Archer, for example, disclosed on its fourth quarter (Q4) earnings details about its new “Launch Edition” program, in which it will provide aircraft, pilots and maintenance and training professionals to international launch markets around the world, beginning with Abu Dhabi later in 2025. The launch of non-commercial market survey flights will be preceded by a series of tests in the desert evaluating the aircraft in extremely hot and sandy conditions. The first Midnight eVTOL will be delivered sometime toward the middle of the year, Archer says.
In an interview with Aviation Week, Archer’s founder and CEO Adam Goldstein describes the initiative as a way to begin earning revenues—he estimates the Abu Dhabi deal will generate up to $20 million primarily through aircraft sales—while the extended FAA type certification process plays out. The company has earmarked seven aircraft for the program; these are considered pre-production prototypes. It is not yet clear whether the Gulf Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) will require its own certification or if there is a pathway to operations on some other basis.
“We have found a way to monetize our aircraft even ahead of FAA certification,” Goldstein tells Aviation Week. “That means we have less of a sole dependence on waiting for type cert, because we can still deploy every plane we build and build out a real business. The FAA cert will come whenever it comes—but in the meantime, we’re not going to be waiting around to start standing up our business and generating revenues.”
Like its main rival, Joby has also seized on the fast-moving UAE as an ideal launch market, with an early focus on Dubai. The startup said it plans to transfer its first S4 air taxi to Dubai around the middle of this year to complete flight testing in the emirate. The aircraft is to arrive ahead of Joby’s plans to start carrying its first passengers in late 2025 or early 2026 in Dubai, the company said in its Q4 earnings call. Like Archer, the initial flights would be market test flights.
The aircraft that is being sent to Dubai is a “production prototype” from Joby’s existing fleet of five aircraft and flies on a regular basis, the company says. Aircraft in Dubai are to be owned and operated by Joby.
While the two startups aspire to launch market survey flights as soon as late 2025, it is not yet clear when a commercial service could begin. An official with the GCAA told Aviation Week sister publication Times Aerospace last month that it may not be until 2027.
In announcing the plans on their latest earnings calls, both Archer and Joby were conspicuously mum on the subject of U.S. certification progress and timelines to launch domestic service. While neither company has officially announced a delay from their previously stated timelines, investors and industry watchers have awakened to the reality that commercial service is still likely years away. Neither Archer nor Joby has rolled out a conforming aircraft yet. Joby announced a goal to begin for-credit testing under Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) within 12 months; Archer did not provide an estimate.
An updated infographic from industry expert Sergio Cecutta, founder and president of SMG Consulting, projects under a baseline scenario that Archer and Joby will launch into TIA flight testing in the third quarter of this year, achieve type certification in the first quarter of 2027, and launch service by the second quarter of 2028. Under a best-case scenario, commercial service could begin in the second quarter of 2027.
While it remains to be seen whether Archer and Joby can launch commercial service abroad ahead of FAA type certification, the startups’ efforts to prove out their business case and technology should reassure long-term investors that serious progress is underway even if certification timelines continue to slip.
That added confidence will be critical as investors may have to wait longer than expected for U.S. services.
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