Florida Air Taxi Trials Begin as Joby and Beta Fly St. Petersburg to Tampa

On Friday, October 30, 2026, two electric aircraft took off from Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Petersburg and landed at Tampa International Airport about 20 minutes later. One was a Joby S4, registration N545JX, a conforming prototype. The other was Beta Technologies first production-conforming Alia CX300, registration N916LF. The flights opened Florida part of the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, the White House-backed program the US Department of Transportation announced in March 2026.

Beta says its CX300 aircraft have already completed 14 pilot program flights covering nearly 700 nautical miles around Tampa and Orlando. Joby planned a landing at a new vertiport near Orlando International Terminal C and train station on November 2, with procedures developed over two years of simulation with the FAA, NASA, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority and local air traffic controllers, and flights at Kennedy Space Center on November 7 and 8, during the UP.Summit.

These are demonstration and data-gathering flights, not a service launch. Joby announcement does not mention tickets, and no eVTOL in Florida, or anywhere in the US, holds FAA type certification today. Beta CEO Kyle Clark told Aviation International News that Beta commercial Part 135 flights in Florida could follow, and Beta says its first paid cargo or medical flights would be the first commercial electric aircraft operations in the state. Archer, Beta, Electra and Joby are all named partners in the Florida pilot program, and Electra and the Florida Department of Transportation plan Central Florida flight tests in November.