Delta has partnered with Joby to provide an eVTOL home-to-airport service for its premium customers.
Delta Air Lines is getting into the urban air taxi market.
But rather than buy aircraft as American Airlines and United Airlines plan to, the carrier has signed a deal with Joby Aviation to provide a premium home-to-airport service, beginning in New York and Los Angeles.
Delta has made a $60 million equity investment in Joby, for about a 2% stake, and received a seat on the startup’s board. This could expand to $200 million as the partners meet milestones on development and delivery of the service. The partnership is exclusive in the U.S. and UK for an initial five years after service launch, with the potential to be extended.
Joby’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi service will be integrated into Delta’s premium customer channels to provide seamless booking of time-saving, short-range flights to and from airports. This will run alongside Joby’s standard air taxi service in priority markets and is expected to the be the first eVTOL service to market, the partners say.
The exact timing of the service launch and build-out will be determined by the availability of landing infrastructure, says Joby founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt. Delta will work with airports to establish vertiport locations close to its terminals to shorten transit times for users of the air taxi service.
Joby and Delta are still determining the service’s cost, but the goal is to deliver valuable time savings and a compelling price, Bevirt says. The trip to New York Kennedy Airport can be an hour or more by road. “If we can provide that service in less than 10 min. in the air along with a spectacular view, we think that’s going to be really compelling value ... we’re delivering to Delta customers,” Bevirt says.
Delta has already expedited security channels for premium customers at New York and Los Angeles. The ultimate goal is to land on the tarmac itself, “to get the aircraft and the customer onto their journey as quick as possible,” says Delta CEO Ed Bastian. “We’re not going to start there, but we’re going to hopefully create a pathway to get there.”
The airline will also work with Joby to establish “neighborhood vertiports” close to where its premium customers live or work, taking advantage of the low acoustic signature of its tiltprop eVTOL. Ground transport to and from the vertiports will likely be provided through Joby’s partnership with Uber.
Both New York and Los Angeles have multiple existing helipads, Bevirt says. Not many are approved for commercial operations, but Joby is working to reactivate rooftop helipads. The air conditioning systems of buildings typically have air intakes on the rooftops and must be shut down before a conventional turbine-powered helicopter can use the helipad. “Electric propulsion, because it’s clean, allows us to use that existing infrastructure and bring it back online,” he says.
Joby’s S4 eVTOL is designed to carry a pilot and up to four passengers. “When passengers are traveling to the airport, and they’re carrying luggage, that has the potential to impact the number of seats we can fill,” Bevirt acknowledges.
Delta’s rival American Airlines has invested in UK eVTOL startup Vertical Aerospace and placed preorders and options for 350 of its piloted four-passenger VX4 air taxis. United and its regional affiliate Mesa Air Group have invested in Archer Aviation and placed 300 preorders and options for its Midnight piloted four-passenger eVTOL. But in both cases, the airlines plan to operate their own air taxi service.
“We’re not looking to be an operator,” Bastian says. “Joby’s going to be our operator, and so all of our focus is around delivering a great customer experience and providing the airport environment infrastructure ... which is why exclusivity is so important to us because we’re going to be putting our own capital to work in those channels.”
The service will not be branded as Delta but will be differentiated from Joby’s own air taxi service by the seamless booking process on Delta’s app and website and the siting of vertiport and airport infrastructure to be compelling for the airline’s customers, Bevirt says.
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