Gridlock could be a thing of the past for New Yorkers \u2014 as the metropolitan area has been selected to become a test zone for high-flying air taxies.<\/p>\n
The program will allow Big Apple travelers to shuttle via air transport from places like Manhattan to the local airports for the price of a luxury car service \u2014 after the Trump administration on Monday named New York and several other cities to be part of the air taxi tests. <\/p>\n
The Port Authority will partner with several aerospace companies to run the three-year test \u2014 in which helicopter-like air vehicles will ferry users from short runways and heliports to places such as JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports in five to fifteen minutes.<\/p>\n
Electric aircrafts could transport people from Manhattan to regional airports as early as this summer. Electra<\/p>\n
Passengers could book airline tickets bundled with an air taxi leg from a Manhattan skyport, according to Archer, a company based in San Jose, California that was selected for the pilot. The prices will likely be in the $110 \u2014 $165 range.<\/p>\n
Electra, one of the companies that will participate in the pilot, has developed small electric planes that can take off and land in as little as about 150 feet, allowing them to use short runways at unexpected landing sites, such as fields or parking lots, instead of full sized airports, according to the company.<\/p>\n
Archer has already outlined a proposed \u201cair taxi\u201d network linking skyports in lower Manhattan and Midtown to JFK, LaGuardia and Newark using small electric aircraft carrying a handful of passengers at a time.<\/p>\n
Archer\u2019s map, developed with United Airlines, also includes potential future connections to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, Westchester County Airport and Long Island\u2019s Republic Airport.<\/p>\n
President Trump instructed all federal agencies to prioritize US-made aircraft \u201cto the maximum extent permitted by law,\u201d in his order.<\/p>\n
Joby Aviation\u2019s electric air taxi performed a flight demonstration during a press conference in Dubai in February. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s American innovation at its best,\u201d Marc Allen, CEO of Electra, said. \u201cThis Administration is opening the door for an American company to demonstrate how hybrid-electric propulsion works at scale, to reimagine how we use the skies, and to change the way that people get to where they want to go.<\/p>\n
Aerospace companies BETA and Joby were also selected to test in the New York and New Jersey area for the pilot. <\/p>\n
Port Authority declined to comment to The Post about the program.<\/p>\n
Archer unveiled a map of proposed air taxi routes in New York City. Archer Aviation<\/p>\n
Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina and New Mexico will also test short electric flights, including some autonomous cargo flights in New Mexico under the program, called the federal\u00a0Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Integration Pilot Program.<\/p>\n
The rollout is likely to trigger debates over noise and safety in communities near heliports and proposed vertiports.<\/p>\n
Noise complaints logged through the FAA\u2019s national portal jumped by about 150% between 2023 and 2024, according to the FAA\u2019s report on aviation noise concerns published last year.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order put the FAA on an unusually fast track to establish rules for a brand new class of aircraft. The agency was alloted a little over a year to design the program, select partners and get them flying \u2014 far faster than the FAA\u2019s own \u201coptimal rulemaking timeline\u201d of 36 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Federal officials said the pilot will test whether the technology is safe, adheres to noise standards and whether the hopper flights meaningfully improve regional mobility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gridlock could be a thing of the past for New Yorkers \u2014 as the metropolitan area has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,1219,1184,15617,57,9,24,63,87,129,131,130,1069,58],"class_list":["post-161938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-drones","tag-faa","tag-flights","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-trump","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}