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DUBAI—Eight years after unveiling its relationship with Dubai in 2017, air taxi developer Joby is marking its debut at Dubai Airshow as the first-ever eVTOL company to perform aerial demonstrations here as it prepares to launch local services next year.
Just days before the show opened on Nov. 9, Joby completed a milestone A-to-B journey, performing a 27-nm piloted flight from its UAE base in Margham to Dubai World Central in 17 min.
Anthony Khoury, general manager of Joby UAE, says: “This achievement showcased not just aircraft performance but Dubai’s regulatory and infrastructure readiness. The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and Dubai Civil Aviation Authority’s (DCAA’s) coordination and support reinforce why the UAE has become one of the world’s most promising launchpads for advanced air mobility (AAM).”
With five demonstration flights taking place across the week, Khoury says that it is an opportunity for visitors to not only see what the future of AAM looks like, but also crucially, “what it sounds like… with a mid-air hover and smooth banking turns, we want people to hear how silent it is.”
Vertiport infrastructure is also progressing. Joby and Skyports have topped out Dubai’s first vertiport at DXB, with three more now confirmed at American University of Dubai, Dubai Mall’s Zabeel car park and the Royal Atlantis. The four vertiports will form the backbone of a citywide air taxi network. Joby has slated a 2026 start date for commercial operations.
Looking beyond Dubai, Joby’s ambitions stretch across the UAE, including Ras Al Khaimah, and beyond into Saudi Arabia. Outside the region, it is also looking at Kazakhstan and Japan.
Despite a volatile market, which has seen other fledgling eVTOL companies including Lilium and Volocopter face insolvency, Joby’s success, according to Khoury, is “thanks to amazing leadership and vision,” but also “as a vertically integrated company—we’re the only OEM that builds more than 95% of the components in-house. We’re able to design, manufacture, test and iterate quickly, but also to pivot into different abilities.”
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