DUBAI: Dubai commuters may soon have a new way to skip traffic: air taxis.
Joby Aviation conducted the first test flight of its fully-electric air taxi in the emirate this week, a major milestone in the city’s efforts to integrate airborne transport into existing mobility networks as early as next year.
Joby hopes its air-taxis will ease pressure on existing ground transportation and offer travelers a faster alternative as Dubai faces increasing congestion.
“We want to change the way people commute,” Anthony Khoury, Joby’s UAE General Manager, said.
A journey from Dubai’s main airport DXB to Palm Jumeirah aboard the Joby Aerial Taxi will take roughly twelve minutes, the company predicts, as opposed to 45 minutes by car.
While Joby’s long-term ambition is to make its aerial taxis “affordable for everybody to use,” Khoury says, they acknowledge early pricing will likely target higher-income travelers. “As with any novel technology, early days might be a bit more premium.”
The demonstration flight was held on Monday at an isolated desert site southeast of Dubai’s downtown and was designed to emulate a typical aerial taxi journey, according to Joby Aviation officials.
In a ceremony attended by senior government officials, transport executives and company representatives, the experimental aircraft executed a vertical takeoff, flew for several miles, and then returned for a vertical landing.
The Joby Aerial Taxi, the flagship electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developed by the California-based company, can fly distances of up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) at speeds reaching 320km/hr (200mph).
Fully electric, with zero operating emissions, Joby’s air-taxi is designed to be both eco-friendly and quiet enough for commercial use in dense urban areas.
“It will be flying in the city, next to residential areas, and hopefully people will barely notice it,” Khoury said. While eVTOLs such as Joby’s have been hailed as the future of urban air the industry still faces major hurdles — including securing regulatory approval and developing sufficient vertiport infrastructure.
Morgan Stanley downgraded Joby’s stock price target from $10 to $7 in April, flagging near-term execution risks and broader aerospace industry concerns, including tariffs and supply-chain issues. Joby is currently trading at $10.55.
In early 2024, Joby signed a contract with Dubai’s Roads and Transit Authority that awarded the company exclusive rights to operate aerial taxis in the city for the next six years.
The company plans to inaugurate the emirate’s commercial air-taxi service in 2026, with four initial vertiports located at Dubai International Airport (DXB), Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Downtown and Dubai Marina.
“In aviation, you don’t see transformations like this,” said Didier Papadopoulos, Joby’s President of Original Equipment Manufacturing.
“Every once in a while, you have this propulsive move into the future. What you’re witnessing here is really exciting, and I’m excited for you to be riding this one point in the future.”
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Dubai aims to beat the traffic with 2026 Joby air taxi liftoff
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Dubai aims to beat the traffic with 2026 Joby air taxi liftoff
- Joby hopes its air taxis will ease pressure on existing ground transportation and offer travelers a faster alternative as Dubai faces increasing congestion
Israel begins demolishing residential buildings in West Bank camp
- The 25 buildings were home to about 100 families in the Nur Shams refugee camp
- Israeli military claims demolitions are part of effort to root out armed groups in northern areas of the territory
NUR SHAMS, occupied West Bank: Israeli bulldozers began demolishing 25 buildings housing Palestinians in a refugee camp on Wednesday, in what the military said was an effort to root out armed groups in northern areas of the occupied West Bank.
The buildings, home to some 100 families, are in the Nur Shams camp, a frequent site of clashes between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces.
Israeli military bulldozers and cranes tore through the structures early Wednesday, sending thick plumes of dust into the air, an AFP journalist reported. Many residents watched from a distance.
The military said the demolitions were part of an operation against militants.
“Following ongoing counterterrorism activity by Israeli security forces in the area of Nur Shams in northern Samaria, the commander of the Central Command, Major General Avi Bluth, ordered the demolition of several structures due to a clear and necessary operational need,” the military told AFP in a statement.
“Areas in northern Samaria have become a significant center of terrorist activity, operating from within densely populated civilian areas.”
Earlier this year, the military launched an operation it said was aimed at dismantling Palestinian armed groups from camps in northern West Bank — including Nur Shams, Tulkarem and Jenin.
“Even a year after the beginning of IDF operations in the area, forces continue to locate ammunition, weapons, and explosive devices used by terrorist organizations, which endanger IDF soldiers and impair operational freedom of action,” the military said on Wednesday.
Earlier in December, AFP reported residents of the targeted buildings retrieving their belongings, with many saying they had nowhere to go.
The demolitions form part of a broader Israeli strategy aimed at easing access for military vehicles within the densely built refugee camps of the West Bank.
Israel has occupied the Palestinian territory since 1967.
Nur Shams, along with other refugee camps in the West Bank, was established after the creation of Israel in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes in what is now Israel.
With time, the camps they established inside the West Bank became dense neighborhoods not under their adjacent cities’ authority. Residents pass on their refugee status from one generation to the next.
Many residents believe Israel is seeking to destroy the idea of the camps themselves, turning them into regular neighborhoods of the cities they flank, in order to eliminate the refugee issue.
The buildings, home to some 100 families, are in the Nur Shams camp, a frequent site of clashes between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces.
Israeli military bulldozers and cranes tore through the structures early Wednesday, sending thick plumes of dust into the air, an AFP journalist reported. Many residents watched from a distance.
The military said the demolitions were part of an operation against militants.
“Following ongoing counterterrorism activity by Israeli security forces in the area of Nur Shams in northern Samaria, the commander of the Central Command, Major General Avi Bluth, ordered the demolition of several structures due to a clear and necessary operational need,” the military told AFP in a statement.
“Areas in northern Samaria have become a significant center of terrorist activity, operating from within densely populated civilian areas.”
Earlier this year, the military launched an operation it said was aimed at dismantling Palestinian armed groups from camps in northern West Bank — including Nur Shams, Tulkarem and Jenin.
“Even a year after the beginning of IDF operations in the area, forces continue to locate ammunition, weapons, and explosive devices used by terrorist organizations, which endanger IDF soldiers and impair operational freedom of action,” the military said on Wednesday.
Earlier in December, AFP reported residents of the targeted buildings retrieving their belongings, with many saying they had nowhere to go.
The demolitions form part of a broader Israeli strategy aimed at easing access for military vehicles within the densely built refugee camps of the West Bank.
Israel has occupied the Palestinian territory since 1967.
Nur Shams, along with other refugee camps in the West Bank, was established after the creation of Israel in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes in what is now Israel.
With time, the camps they established inside the West Bank became dense neighborhoods not under their adjacent cities’ authority. Residents pass on their refugee status from one generation to the next.
Many residents believe Israel is seeking to destroy the idea of the camps themselves, turning them into regular neighborhoods of the cities they flank, in order to eliminate the refugee issue.
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