WASHINGTON (TNND) — Joby Aviation on Monday finished its first electric vehicle take-off and landing in New York City.
The electric air taxi made its way from John F. Kennedy Airport to the Manhattan heliport network. Joby’s stock increased roughly 3%, according to Yahoo Finance.
Joby’s chief product officer said the success of the flight shows the company could have passenger flights by the second half of 2026.
“This is how we supercharge this,” Eric Allison said, according to Yahoo Finance. “This is how we are able to scale, both in terms of the cost structure and in terms of the environmental friendliness of this.”
Allison also touted that the aircraft is zero-emissions.
“This is a zero-emissions aircraft, flying from JFK to here and back, but also incredibly low noise,” he said. “We left the door open when we landed — if you left the door open when a helicopter landed, no one’s happy in the lounge.”
Allison said that there are benefits to Joby’s aircraft that normal helicopters don’t have.
“There are places where people don’t want helicopters to land,” he explained. “With this type of technology, the convenience of vertical flight — being able to book a trip through the Uber app and fly at 200 miles an hour to the airport — you want that closer to you, and that’s critically important for this business.”