Joby Aviation joins Virgin Atlantic to launch electric air taxis in the United Kingdom, marking the seventh country in which the startup hopes one day.
Joby, who became a public in 2021 via an acquisition merger for special purposes, did not provide a calendar to find out when he planned to launch his partnership with Virgin in the United Kingdom, a company spokesperson told Techcrunch that he would arrive soon after the launches of Joby to the Water and the United States
Joby hopes to start market tests in Dubai at the end of this year or at the start of the next time after delivering his first Evtol plane (defending electric vertical) to the country. The startup also planned to launch a sales service in the United States, New York or Los Angeles in 2025, but this calendar can be pushed while Joby works to obtain the necessary certifications of the Federal Aviation Administration.
In October 2024, Joby said that he was able to receive type certification – which means approval of the vehicle design – but a spokesperson today could not provide a updated calendar.
Joby will also have to obtain his own certifications in the United Kingdom before its launch. The company requested validation of its plane for use by the UK Civil Aviation Authority in July 2022.
Joby’s link with Virgin comes almost seven months after Techcrunch reported for the first time that the two companies intended to work together – news that we have experienced via one of our “little birds”.
According to the agreement, Joby will be the exclusive partner in the distribution of virgin airlines in the United Kingdom, the company based in California also has a mutually exclusive agreement with another airline, Delta, the United States and the United Kingdom, but the Virgin partnership is due to this existing agreement because Delta has about half of Virgin.
The Joby agreement with Delta promises to authorize customers to access a premium service which transports them local vertices directly to the airport. (VERTORIPTS is infrastructure where takeoff, earth and load of evtols.) The Virgin Partnership promises a similar network of landing sites across the United Kingdom, but it will start by connecting passengers from the Hubs of the airline to Heathrow and London Manchester airport.
According to companies, Virgin customers will be able to book a seat on Joby aircraft in the future via the Virgin Atlantic application and website.
The partnership with Airlines is one of the main ways in which Evtol companies plan to market. The main rival of Joby, Archer Aviation, concluded similar agreements with United and Southwest.
Many of these transactions have included investments in airlines. Delta, for example, has already invested $ 60 million in Joby, with the possibility of investing up to $ 200 million more if Joby keeps his promises. An investment is not part of the Joby agreement with Virgin, according to a spokesperson for Joby.
In a statement, Virgin said that it would support Joby’s marketing efforts in the United Kingdom by marketing customer service, working with regulators and helping to “strengthen support for the development of the infrastructure for landing at key airports”.
Evtol de Joby is designed to transport a driver, four passengers and a few luggage. He promises to fly to speeds up to 200 miles per hour, making a leeds in Manchester a 15 -minute trip.
The startup is far from large-scale deployments, but Joby has declared its intention to launch an air taxi service in the United States, in the United Kingdom, in the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Japan, India and Australia.
