Joby Kicks Off Florida Flight Campaign Within Federal eVTOL Integration Programme

Joby Aviation has launched a week of crewed electric air taxi demonstrations across Florida, run alongside the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and tied to the US Department of Transportation’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP).

The campaign threads the company’s aircraft through Tampa Bay, Orlando and the Space Coast. Its purpose is practical rather than promotional: officials want to see how electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft behave inside working airport environments, and the results will feed into early planning for a proposed statewide intercity air taxi network.

A century-old route, flown electrically

The opening sortie crossed Tampa Bay, linking Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Petersburg with Tampa International Airport. That path carries some history — it mirrors the corridor used in January 1914 for what is generally recognised as the first scheduled commercial airline flight, which connected St. Petersburg and Tampa.

In Orlando, Joby intends to fly into Orlando International Airport, touching down at a new vertiport sited close to Terminal C and the airport’s train station. The company says the routes and procedures behind those operations came out of roughly two years of simulation work with the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority and local air traffic controllers.

A further flight is lined up at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, timed to overlap with the UP.Summit aviation industry gathering.

Eight sites, three phases

Florida is one of eight locations chosen nationally for the eIPP, an initiative built around collecting real operational experience and laying groundwork for safe eVTOL integration into US airspace. FDOT describes its own project as a three-stage effort covering passenger transport, cargo delivery, automation and medical response.

The state’s advanced air mobility push dates back to 2021. In April 2026, Florida legislators gave FDOT the authority to fund vertiport infrastructure statewide. A separate test campus, SunTrax Air, is taking shape near Interstate 4, with testing expected to start before the end of 2026.

What this week proves: eVTOL flights can be sequenced into busy commercial airports — and the paperwork, simulations and controller coordination matter as much as the aircraft itself.

What happens next matters more than the demonstration flights themselves. Florida’s findings will help decide whether intercity electric air taxi service becomes a live proposition or stays a pilot-stage ambition — and other states in the eIPP will be watching closely.