By
Alex Bitter
Every time Alex publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider’s
Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy.
Follow Alex Bitter
- Uber riders in Dubai will have a new transport option later this year: Air taxis.
- Startup Joby will start offering rides bookable through the Uber app, the companies said Wednesday.
- Joby is working on getting regulatory approval to launch a similar service in the US.
Uber riders can hail a car, motorbike, or boat, depending on where they are in the world. Soon, helicopter-like air taxis will join that list.
Passengers will be able to book an air taxi ride through the Uber app in Dubai before the end of 2026, the company said on Wednesday. The option will use flying electric vehicles created by startup Joby Aviation.
Joby's aircraft can fit up to four passengers and are flown by commercial pilots, the companies said. Joby will operate four landing locations, or "vertiports," in Dubai, connecting Dubai International Airport with a mall, a hotel on Palm Jumeirah, and the American University of Dubai.
While Uber and Joby don't have immediate plans to bring the air taxis to the US, the companies said that Joby is in the final stage of certifying its service with the Federal Aviation Administration.
"We've long believed in the power of advanced air mobility to transform how people move through cities," Sachin Kansal, Uber's Chief Product Officer, said.
The Uber partnership makes "this new mode of transportation familiar and accessible, connecting the ground and the sky through a system designed to save people time and fit seamlessly into how they already move," said Eric Allison, Joby's chief product officer.
Passengers will be able to book Uber Air rides on Joby aircraft alongside regular ride-hailing trips, the companies said. Air taxi trips will also include Uber Black pickup and drop-off from passengers' origin and destination.
Once approved, Joby plans to eventually offer its service in markets including New York, Los Angeles, the UK, and Japan.
Joby's planned Dubai debut comes almost six years after the startup acquired Uber Elevate, the ride-hailing app's air mobility division. Under the 2020 deal, Uber invested $75 million in the company.
It was one of multiple divisions that Uber shed as transportation demand cratered during the first year of the pandemic. Around the same time, Uber sold its self-driving car division to startup Aurora — something it made up for last year by announcing a partnership with Lucid and Nuro for robotaxis.
Have a tip? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
