Joby and BETA Retrace the First Airline Flight Across Tampa Bay in Electric Air Taxis

The Florida Department of Transportation hosted an Advanced Air Mobility test flight at Tampa International Airport on October 30, with battery-powered electric aircraft from Joby Aviation and BETA Technologies flying in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration. The demonstration began at Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Petersburg and crossed Tampa Bay to Tampa International Airport, retracing the route of the world’s first scheduled airline flight, flown by Tony Jannus on January 1, 1914, carrying former St. Petersburg mayor Abram Pheil as its first paying passenger.

Joby said the flight opens a week-long series of piloted electric air-taxi flights across Florida, from Tampa to Orlando and on to the Space Coast. The aircraft will fly at Orlando International Airport, landing near Terminal C and its train station at a new vertiport, and at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center. The flights are Florida’s first under the White House-backed eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation in March 2026, and they will help map the first phase of Florida’s planned Aerial Highway Network, a system of dedicated aerial corridors connecting major hubs, initially following Interstate 4.

The honest status: these are demonstration and mapping flights, not commercial service. Neither Joby nor BETA holds an FAA type certificate for a commercial air taxi yet, and no paying passengers were carried in Tampa Bay. Joby’s S4 is designed to carry one pilot and four passengers at up to 200 mph with a maximum range of about 100 miles. Florida officials pitch the network as a way to bypass road congestion between cities, airports and population centers, with cargo, emergency medical and organ transport as early uses alongside air taxis — but certification, vertiports and operating rules still stand between a Tampa Bay flyover and a ticketed ride.