Archer’s Midnight Air Taxi Cleared to Fly in Los Angeles — Its Biggest Commercial Milestone Yet

Archer Aviation’s Midnight electric air taxi has received its market survey special airworthiness certificate from the FAA, the company announced on November 9, 2026. The certificate unlocks Archer’s ability to begin flying Midnight in Los Angeles and progress toward passenger-carrying operations in LA and other major U.S. cities ahead of type certification. Archer called it “undoubtedly our most important commercialization milestone to date.”

The first Midnight aircraft has been delivered to Los Angeles for the next leg of the company’s No Roads flight tour, which is expected to begin in the coming weeks. In September, Archer launched the tour in Northern California in close coordination with the FAA. Over the coming quarters in LA, Archer expects to progress from piloted conventional takeoff and landing into vertical takeoff and landing operations, and then on to pilot-plus-passenger operations, in coordination with the FAA and in parallel with type certification.

Midnight is in the fourth and final phase of the FAA’s type certification process, the implementation phase, where every compliance finding is made against the means of compliance and test plans agreed with the agency. Archer has been preparing LA for more than two years, since announcing its planned LA route network in August 2024, and in May 2025 the LA28 Olympic Games selected Archer as the official air taxi provider of the 2028 Games.

The strategy runs through the federal eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, established by the White House three weeks after the LA28 selection, which gives a pathway for accelerated launch in American cities. Archer plans to fly in American cities through 2027 and showcase air taxi operations at the Games in 2028, with the No Roads tour also planned for Texas, Florida and New York.