No electric air taxi maker holds an FAA type certificate with ten weeks left of 2026, the year Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation both named for their first passengers. Neither has carried a paying passenger, in the United States or in the Gulf.
In April, this article reported Joby’s Dubai service as weeks away and Archer’s Abu Dhabi launch as a third-quarter target. Both dates have passed.
Where each stands with the FAA
Powered-lift certification runs in five stages, and Joby works them in parallel. Its August quarterly filing put it about 75 percent through the fourth stage, with “steady progress” in the fifth. Five aircraft are flying, including the first built to the conforming design, and twelve more are in production.
What remains is the part no company can schedule alone. FAA test pilots must fly the conforming aircraft for credit and file their reports. Each month that takes moves the certificate by a month.
Archer reports its progress differently. The FAA has accepted all 797 of its means of compliance, the agreed methods for proving its Midnight aircraft meets each requirement. That fixes the test plan; it does not mean the tests are passed. Archer began piloted flights between Salinas, Hollister and Monterey in California on 8 September.
The Gulf first
Both companies picked the United Arab Emirates for their first passengers. Joby holds a six-year exclusive with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority. The UAE’s civil aviation authority certified its first vertiport, beside Dubai International Airport, on 7 July. Joby still says it will fly passengers there in 2026.
Archer entered the UAE’s Restricted Type Certificate programme in May, the first manufacturer to do so. Admission is not a certificate. Archer’s August filing says it is on track to deliver more aircraft to Abu Dhabi this year, ahead of passenger operations.
EHang is still the only company carrying paying passengers in an eVTOL. Its EH216-S has flown sightseeing routes in China for two years, under a Chinese certificate.
Money and lawyers
Joby had $2.3 billion in cash, equivalents and marketable securities at the end of June. Archer had $1.56 billion, after a second-quarter net loss of $263.2 million.
Archer has also stopped being only an air taxi company. In August it agreed to buy Wisk, Insitu and SkyGrid from Boeing for shares, with Boeing taking 19.75 percent of Archer’s Class A stock. The US antitrust waiting period ended on 18 September. The deal had not closed by 16 October.
The two rivals are in court as well. Joby accuses Archer of taking trade secrets, and Vertical Aerospace has countersued Archer for patent infringement.
Joby reports its third-quarter results on 4 November, the next filing that has to say how far the FAA has got.
