Joby Announces Beginning of Work on First Dubai Vertiport

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 12, 2024--

Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY), a company developing electric air taxis for commercial passenger service, today announced that construction has begun on the first vertiport in its planned Dubai air taxi network.

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Situated at Dubai International Airport (“DXB”), the vertiport is being constructed by Joby partners Dubai Road and Transport Authority (“RTA”) and Skyports, who celebrated the moment at a ceremony attended by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, His Highness Maktoum bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer, Director General of the RTA, JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby, as well as representatives from the Dubai RTA and Skyports.

The DXB vertiport is one of four initial locations that will form Joby’s network of vertiports for the air taxi service the Company plans to launch in the Emirate as soon as late 2025, with three additional vertiports planned for development in Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Downtown, and Dubai Marina. Joby’s planned service was announced as part of a definitive agreement signed by Joby, the RTA, and Skyports in February 2024, which included exclusive access for Joby to the Dubai air taxi market for six years.

“Our air taxi service in Dubai will offer tourists and residents the opportunity to experience a revolutionary travel experience, with faster movement between key destinations and breathtaking views of the city skyline,” commented Bevirt.

“With the start of construction on our air taxi network, our shared vision for electric air taxi service in Dubai is coming to life. I’m grateful to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and to the government of Dubai for their support and commitment to innovation.”

The vertiport is designed to be integrated with Dubai’s multimodal transport network, providing seamless connectivity with Dubai Metro’s Emirates Station 2, DXB Airport, parking infrastructure, and other ground transportation options. Designed for exceptional passenger experience and high throughput, the three-story, 3,100-square-meter facility is designed to demonstrate a future vision for air travel focused on convenience and seamless passenger movements.

The facility is planned to include two take-off and landing stands, each equipped with the Joby-designed Global Electric Aviation Charging System (“GEACS”) to support rapid vehicle charging and conditioning in between flights.

Joby recently announced it has taken the first step toward becoming a certificated air taxi operator in the United Arab Emirates. As part of the process to attain an Air Operator Certificate from the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority, Joby will demonstrate the readiness of its aircraft as well as its training, maintenance, operations and safety programs for commercial air transport.

Joby’s electric air taxi is designed to carry a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 200 mph, offering high-speed mobility with a fraction of the noise produced by helicopters and zero operating emissions.

About Joby

Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY) is a California-based transportation company developing an all-electric, vertical take-off and landing air taxi which it intends to operate as part of a fast, quiet, and convenient service in cities around the world. To learn more, visit www.jobyaviation.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, statements regarding the development and performance of our aircraft, the growth of our manufacturing capabilities, our regulatory outlook, progress and timing; our business plan, objectives, goals and market opportunity; our plans related to certification and operation of our aircraft in the United Arab Emirates, including vertiport location, timing and expected benefits of our service; and our current expectations relating to our business, financial condition, results of operations, prospects, capital needs and growth of our operations. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements may include words such as “anticipate”, “estimate”, “expect”, “project”, “plan”, “intend”, “believe”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “can have”, “likely” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of the timing or nature of future operating or financial performance or other events. All forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including: our ability to launch our air taxi service and the growth of the urban air mobility market generally; our ability to produce aircraft that meet our performance expectations in the volumes and on the timelines that we project; complexities related to obtaining certification and operating in foreign markets; the ability of us and our partners to develop necessary infrastructure in time for planned operations, or at all; the competitive environment in which we operate; our future capital needs; our ability to adequately protect and enforce our intellectual property rights; our ability to effectively respond to evolving regulations and standards relating to our aircraft; our reliance on third-party suppliers and service partners; uncertainties related to our estimates of the size of the market for our service and future revenue opportunities; and other important factors discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 27, 2024, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on November 6, 2024, and in future filings and other reports we file with or furnish to the SEC. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates and beliefs as of the date of this release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.

Construction has begun on the first vertiport in Joby’s planned Dubai air taxi network, located at Dubai International Airport. Photo: Dubai RTA

Construction has begun on the first vertiport in Joby’s planned Dubai air taxi network, located at Dubai International Airport. Photo: Dubai RTA

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Legislators from Mexico’s ruling party reelected the head of the National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday despite widespread opposition and her failure to call out the government for abuses.

The reelection of Rosario Piedra in a party-line congressional vote appeared to be another example of the ruling Morena party’s attempts to weaken independent oversight bodies. Morena has proposed eliminating a host of other oversight, transparency and freedom-of-information agencies, claiming they cost too much to run.

Mexico's civic and nonprofit rights groups have been almost unanimous in their criticism of Piedra's reelection.

“This is an undeserved prize for a career marked by inaction, the loss of independence and the weakening of the institution,” the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez human rights center wrote on its social media accounts.

A committed supporter of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who left office on Sept. 30, Piedra once affirmed that none of the deaths caused by the armed forces under his administration were illegal or unjustified. She shared the former president's delight in attacking and criticizing other independent human rights groups.

Since her first election in 2019, Piedra has done little to investigate allegations of massacres or extrajudicial killings by soldiers and members of the militarized National Guard, to whom López Obrador gave sweeping powers.

Despite receiving over 1,800 citizen complaints against the armed forces between 2020 and 2023, her commission issued only 39 recommendations, and most of the few military cases her commission did follow up on involved abuses committed under previous administrations.

The rights commission has the power to make nonbinding recommendations to government agencies. If they do not agree to follow the recommendations, they are at least required by law to explain why.

Piedra has almost exclusively focused the commission's work on issuing recommendations in cases where people have not received proper care at government-run hospitals. Those recommendations accomplish little, because they don't address the central problem of underfunded, poorly equipped hospitals forced to handle too many patients.

At times Piedra acted as if human rights violations no longer existed under López Obrador. In 2019, she expressed disbelief when asked about the killing of journalists, despite the fact that almost a dozen were killed in López Obrador's first year in office.

“Are they killing journalists?” she said with an expression of disbelief.

Piedra comes from a well-known activist family: Her mother founded one of Mexico's first groups to demand answers for families whose relatives had been abducted and disappeared by the government in the 1960s and '70s. But even her mother's group, the Eureka Committee, did not support Piedra's reelection.

“Her actions appear to support impunity for the perpetrators of governmental terrorism, and the government's line of obedience and forgetting” rights abuses, the committee wrote in a statement.

Piedra broke with two important traditions: she was a member of the ruling party when she was elected to her first term in 2019. The job has usually gone to nonpartisan human rights experts.

And she has openly endorsed and supported government policies and actions. Previous heads of the commission had a more critical relationship with the government.

Piedra also failed to make the final cut for candidates for the post this year in a congressional examination of their qualifications, but was put on the ballot anyway. She also apparently falsified a letter of recommendation, after a bishop and human rights activist said a letter she presented to support her reelection had not been signed by him.

Piedra will serve under new President Claudia Sheinbaum, another devoted follower of López Obrador, who took office Oct. 1. On Sheinbaum's first day in office, the army killed six migrants near the Guatemalan border; 10 days later, soldiers and National Guard killed three bystanders in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo while chasing suspects.

Sheinbaum’s third week in office was capped by the killing of a crusading Catholic priest who had been threatened by gangs, and a lopsided encounter in northern Sinaloa state in which soldiers killed 19 drug cartel suspects, but suffered not a scratch themselves. That awakened memories of past human rights abuses, like a 2014 incident in which soldiers killed about a dozen cartel suspects after they had surrendered.

The purportedly leftist government has been quick to criticize human rights groups and activists who expose abuses.

In June, an outspoken volunteer advocate for missing people found an apparent body dumping ground with human remains in Mexico City, embarrassing ruling party officials who had done little to look for such clandestine grave sites. City prosecutors lashed out at her, claiming “the chain of custody” of the evidence had been manipulated, which could lead to charges.

FILE - Wearing a photo of her brother who went missing in 1975 around her neck, the newly appointed head of the country's human rights Rosario Piedra Ibarra speak during a press conference in Mexico City, Nov. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)