The UAE authorities have announced the resumption of the flying taxi program, they plan to launch them by 2026. Dubai plans to equip two launch pads for flying taxis near the busiest international airport in the world.

The partner of the program will be the American venture aviation company Joby Aviation, and not the Chinese EHang 184 and XPeng X2 or the German Volocopter, as previously reported. The developments of Joby Aviation were presented at the World Government Summit in Dubai on February 13

The Joby Aviation prototype can fly more than 240 km without recharging — this will allow it to get from the starting point to Abu Dhabi and other parts of the country. The air taxi takes off and lands vertically. Its maximum speed is 320 km/h. In addition, the initiative to launch an air taxi is fueled by the desire of local authorities to abandon gasoline and diesel cars. Dubai expects that by 2030, a quarter of all cars on the country’s roads will be self-driving.

The information says about the approval of the design of the so—called vertiports – these are locations for boarding and disembarking future air passengers. So far, we are talking about four key places from the point of view of business and tourism: the international airport, the business center of the city, the artificial archipelago of Palm Jumeirah and the Marina district. At each point there will be two launch pads and four places to recharge flying cars.

According to preliminary data, the cost of an air taxi flight will be comparable to local prices for trips in limousines or slightly higher.