Orlando Airport Opens the First Vertipad at a US Commercial Airport as Joby Flies In

An electric air taxi took off and landed at Orlando International Airport on November 4, using a new landing pad that officials call the first vertipad built on site at a US commercial airport. Joby Aviation flew the demonstration with the Florida Department of Transportation and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority.

The pad, named Vertipad Atlantis, sits in the Atlantis surface parking lot next to Terminal C and the Brightline train station. The airport authority approved it in July, on condition of FAA approval, as a place to test procedures for future electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Routes and procedures for the flight were developed with the FAA and NASA and coordinated with Orlando air traffic controllers. The demonstration is part of the federal eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, which picked Florida project in March.

Passenger service is still years away. The airport authority aims to open a commercial vertiport by 2030, a target it had previously set for 2028. Joby aircraft is an electric vertical takeoff and landing craft with six tilting propellers, designed to carry a pilot and four passengers, covering a range of 150 miles on a single battery charge at speeds of about 200 mph. The November 4 flight was a demonstration: no tickets, no fares, and no eVTOL anywhere in the US holds FAA type certification today.