Joby Aviation Inc. (Santa Cruz, Calif., U.S.) and Virgin Atlantic (London, U.K.) have signed a definitive, multiyear commercial agreement, converting a partnership the companies first announced in 2025 into a binding framework to launch service for Joby’s composites-intensive S4 electric air taxi in the U.K.. The S4 airframe relies on carbon fiber-reinforced composite structures and Joby began producing composite propeller blades at its Dayton, Ohio, facility in October 2025 to support planned production of up to 500 aircraft per year (see Learn more below).
The agreement establishes Virgin Atlantic as Joby’s exclusive airline partner for air taxi service in the U.K. and builds on Joby’s existing partnership with Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, Ga., U.S.), which holds a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic, linking the three companies to advance faster, more convenient regional travel. Virgin Atlantic will integrate Joby’s service into its booking platforms, including its mobile app and website, allowing travelers to reserve air taxi connections alongside long-haul flights.
Joby plans to launch service at Virgin Atlantic’s hubs in London and Manchester, with the latter anchoring connections across the north of England. Early routes are expected to include Manchester Airport to Leeds in ~15 minutes and Heathrow to Central London in as little as 8 minutes — trips that take more than 1 hour by car today. Joby will retain responsibility for aircraft operations, route management and securing regulatory approval from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), while Virgin Atlantic will support infrastructure integration and customer acquisition.
According to Aviation Week, which spoke with Joby at the Farnborough Air Show, the company still has additional certification work ahead before it can carry paying passengers. Ife Ogunleye, Joby’s systems engineering and certification lead, told Aviation Week that the company must complete several prerequisites under FAA Part 21.35 — the regulation governing flight tests required for type certification — before beginning for-credit certification flight testing with an FAA test pilot.
“The regulation has specific requirements of all the things you have to do,” says Ogunleye in the article, adding that Joby is now working through them with the FAA. Joby is pursuing parallel validation with the CAA, the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau and Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority, and Ogunleye described the FAA relationship as collaborative, noting the agency has worked to harmonize its approach with international counterparts.
Three additional conforming S4 aircraft are expected to join Joby’s test fleet by year’s end, and the company’s approach to FAA type inspection authorization will allow specific tests to be transferred across different airframes rather than tying individual tests to individual aircraft. Ogunleye notes in the Aviation Week article that destructive testing will be limited to structural components rather than full conforming aircraft.
Source | Joby Aviation
