"Joby Aviation" Q2 2026 Earnings Call - Revenue Guidance Raised as Blade Momentum Fuels Commercialization Push
Summary
Joby Aviation is no longer just selling a vision of electric flight. It is building the operating system around it. The second quarter delivered a clear signal that the commercialization clock is ticking faster than many expected. Revenue guidance for 2026 was lifted to $115 million to $125 million, a direct reflection of Blade’s record performance and a 32 percent year-over-year revenue jump in the first half. The acquisition has transformed from a strategic bet into a cash-generating engine, with demand now outpacing aircraft availability. That operational rhythm is being mirrored in manufacturing, where non-conformance rates fell nearly 40 percent and the Toyota joint venture is set to inject $250 million into scaling production.
Beyond the balance sheet, the company is stitching together the fragmented infrastructure required for vertical lift to actually work at scale. The upcoming eIPP flights in Texas will serve as a live proving ground for passenger operations, running parallel to record-breaking progress in Stage 5 type certification. Partnerships with Atoms for hybrid mobility hubs, Virgin Atlantic for UK expansion, and ASI for airspace modernization show a company actively solving the ground and sky constraints that have historically stalled the eVTOL sector. The narrative is shifting from regulatory patience to commercial execution, and Joby is betting that speed, infrastructure, and manufacturing discipline will dictate the winner.
Key Takeaways
- Joby raised full-year revenue guidance to $115 million to $125 million, driven by a 32 percent year-over-year revenue jump in the first half of 2026 from its Blade division.
- Blade posted a record second quarter with seats sold up 50 percent year-over-year, shifting the primary growth constraint from passenger demand to aircraft availability.
- The company confirmed it will launch its first eIPP flights in Texas next month, following a staged rollout that begins with pilots, moves to non-paying passengers, and targets paying passengers within 2026.
- Manufacturing momentum is accelerating, with the non-conformance rate dropping nearly 40 percent in the first half and four additional aircraft added to the production queue this quarter.
- Joby and Toyota formalized a joint venture to scale commercial production, with Toyota committing a $250 million direct equity investment expected to close later this year or early next.
- The firm announced a strategic infrastructure partnership with Atoms, Travis Kalanick’s industrial AI company, to develop hybrid mobility hubs for eVTOLs and autonomous vehicles across Florida, New York, Texas, and California.
- Certification progress hit a record high in Stage 5 of the type certification process, while management views the eIPP program as a parallel operational track that could compress the overall certification timeline.
- Second-quarter cash burn came in at $202 million, with full-year guidance raised to reflect deliberate spending on commercial readiness, manufacturing ramp, and airspace integration.
- A multi-year agreement with Virgin Atlantic sets the stage for UK operations focused on London and Manchester, following successful trial flights during the Farnborough Airshow.
- Joby is actively testing airspace modernization tools through a partnership with ASI, which the FAA recently selected to build central traffic management software, creating a sandbox to prove flight frequency gains before autonomous scaling.
- Defense applications remain a strategic focus, with management highlighting two years of flight testing on hybrid VTOL configurations designed to meet DoD requirements for ISR, strike, and troop transport.
- Hydrogen propulsion was highlighted as a long-term strategic avenue, with management noting its superior specific energy density could fundamentally reshape future aircraft design and range capabilities.
Full Transcript
Conference Operator: Welcome to the Joby Aviation second quarter 2026 financial results. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Teresa Thuruthiyil, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
Teresa Thuruthiyil, Head of Investor Relations, Joby Aviation: Thank you. Good afternoon and evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Joby Aviation’s second quarter 2026 financial results conference call. My name is Teresa Thuruthiyil, and I’m Joby’s Head of Investor Relations. We will begin today with prepared comments from JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Rodrigo Brumana, Chief Financial Officer. For the Q&A portion of today’s call, we will also be joined by our Executive Chairman, Paul Sciarra. Please note that our discussion today will include statements regarding future events and financial performance, as well as statements of belief, expectation, and intent. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.
For a more detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the SEC and the safe harbor disclaimer contained in today’s shareholder letter. During the call, we’ll refer both to GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures is included in our Q2 2026 shareholder letter, which you can find on our investor relations website, along with a replay of this call. All of that said, I’ll turn the call over to JoeBen.
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: Thank you, Teresa, and thank you everyone for joining us today. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be part of our industry. After many years of hard work designing, building, testing, and flying our aircraft across thousands of flights and tens of thousands of miles, we’re now at the point where we’re preparing for commercial service. I’m pleased to confirm that next month we intend to complete our first eIPP flights in Texas. The White House-backed eIPP program has the potential to significantly accelerate our path to commercial service, and we’re grateful to the FAA for their continued partnership as we look ahead to these flights. The flights in Texas will be the first of many that bring Joby together with state and local bodies, as well as the FAA, to prove out the value and operational maturity of our technology.
Over the course of a week, we’ll be flying routes across the Dallas-Fort Worth area that lay the groundwork for future commercial operations. These vertical takeoff and landing flights will demonstrate how our aircraft can transform travel across a major metropolitan area. Over time, and with extensive involvement and oversight from the FAA, we expect flights under the eIPP program to progress from those with only a pilot on board to those carrying non-paying passengers and eventually paying passengers. In preparation for those flights, I’m pleased to confirm that we continue to target carrying our first passengers this year. As we look ahead to commercializing our service, I’ve never been more excited about the potential for vertical lift. We see that potential demonstrated every day through our Blade business as customers choose to pay for journeys that give them meaningful time back.
We acquired Blade just about a year ago with strong conviction in their team, their product, and the opportunity presented by the network they’ve developed across the U.S. and the south of France. Over the past year, that conviction has only strengthened. The business continues to grow quarter-on-quarter, so much so that the core constraint we’re facing on many routes is now aircraft availability rather than passenger demand. The number of seats sold in Q2 was up over 50% from the same time last year, marking Blade’s best-performing Q2 on record in that respect. This quarter also saw the highest number of new flyers going to and from New York City airports since 2023. While route expansions contributed to more than 40% year-on-year growth in Hamptons’ revenue.
We also saw positive impact from a number of key events around the world, including the World Cup and the U.S. Open here in the U.S., as well as the Monaco Grand Prix, where we sold roughly 4,500 seats to or from the race. The last quarter was so strong, in fact, that today I’m pleased to confirm that we are raising our full-year revenue guidance after Blade’s revenue grew 32% year-on-year in the first half. Looking ahead, we’re drawing on Joby’s existing relationship with Uber to drive increased demand. This is in addition to a new partnership between Blade and Visa signed during the quarter, which gives Visa Infinite consumer and business cardholders access to a premium suite of benefits on Blade’s signature airport service in New York.
Vertical takeoff and landing has been our North Star at Joby since day one, and our experience integrating Blade over the past year has only reinforced how central it is to the customer experience. Flying between airports is something aviation has done successfully for a long time. The real opportunity comes from taking customers from where they begin their journeys to where they want to go, saving them the time and friction of traveling through an airport. Blade’s experience with the New York to Hampton service brings this point to life. Customers can book a conventional fixed-wing aircraft from Teterboro to Montauk today for roughly one-third of the price of a helicopter flight from Manhattan, and yet utilization of the helicopter service remains significantly higher. That tells us just how much customers value the time savings and convenience of beginning their journey in the city and avoiding the airport altogether.
Being able to take off vertically is a fundamental part of what drives Blade’s success today, and we believe the opportunity becomes even greater with the introduction of the Joby aircraft, which is quieter, less expensive to operate, and designed specifically for journeys like these. In July, I had the opportunity to experience this convenience for myself, flying to and from the Farnborough Airshow. Despite being one of the world’s largest air shows, everyone still arrives by road or rail on journeys that can take up to 2 hours. We ran our Blade service there for the first time, connecting central London to Farnborough Airport in just 18 minutes, selling out seats on several days and underscoring the value of vertical lift in the U.K. market.
While we were at Farnborough, we signed a multi-year definitive agreement with Virgin Atlantic that builds on that opportunity and sets out a path for us to launch service across the U.K. with a particular focus on London and Manchester. We also held more than 150 meetings with regulators and stakeholders from markets around the globe, including a veritable alphabet soup of regulators that included the DfT and the CAA from the U.K., EASA from Europe, GACA and the GCAA from the Middle East, the USDOT and the FAA, as well as ANAC from Brazil, to name just a few. There was one common thread amongst all these meetings. They are just as excited about vertical lift as we are and are watching Joby’s progress closely.
They’re seeing the positive ripple effects of the eIPP program, and they’re asking how they can unlock the same level of momentum we’re seeing in markets like the U.S. and the U.A.E. As well as seeing great support on the regulatory side in those markets, we’re also making incredible progress with infrastructure. Earlier this week, we announced a strategic partnership with Atoms, the industrial AI infrastructure company founded by Travis Kalanick. Travis co-founded Uber in 2009, the same year that I founded Joby. Since our first jam session in 2015, the one that seeded Uber Elevate, he’s been all-in on electric flight. He’s one of the most dynamic founders of his generation with a rare ability to see the whole system and turn ambitious ideas into real industries.
Together, we’re working on doing just that again with a joint understanding that the next revolution in transportation requires not only new vehicles, but also new infrastructure. Our shared vision goes beyond air taxis. With the rollout of autonomous vehicles gaining significant momentum, we see an opportunity to create a new class of mobility hub designed from the outset to support both technologies. These hubs will combine takeoff and landing and charging for electric aircraft with charging and depot services for autonomous vehicles, sharing fixed costs, creating stronger operating economics, delivering seamless journeys for our customers, and even greater value for the communities in which we’ll operate. The Atoms team is world-class with deep expertise across acquisition, financing, development, electrification, and permitting, and after 8 years of working in stealth, recently raised $1.7 billion with lead investment from a16z to support their growth.
Our own aviation experts will now work alongside the Atoms team to identify and develop the best sites for our network. We’ll be focusing initially on Florida, New York, and Texas, the same markets where we’re preparing to launch early operations under the eIPP program, as well as here in California. In addition to our own progress on infrastructure, we continue to see accelerating momentum and investment by states and airports here in the U.S., infrastructure partners across the industry, and countries around the world. Florida enacted legislation allowing the state to fund certain vertiport projects at up to 100%, committing millions of dollars to activate new sites all over the state. We’re excited that Orlando is already moving forward with developing a vertiport in the central terminal area of one of the country’s busiest commercial airports.
In Dubai at the Marina, the second of four vertiports being built by our partners is nearly complete, and we continue to see meaningful progress on infrastructure in markets like Japan, the wider UAE, Korea, and Australia. To make the most of this momentum, we still have to deliver our part, the aircraft, and the service, and I’m pleased to report excellent progress there, too. We now have five of our electric air taxis in the air, including our first FAA-conforming aircraft, and we have 12 more aircraft in various stages of the production process, including two set for delivery this year. As we’ve said before, manufacturing is hard. Anyone who has tried to do it at scale will tell you that, and building conforming aircraft represents a step change in complexity.
We are putting in the hard miles now so that we’re ready to make the most of all of the opportunities I’ve just described. Over the last quarter, we’ve worked tirelessly to remove bottlenecks and improve processes. During the first six months of this year, as just one example, we reduced the non-conformance rate in our manufacturing processes by nearly 40%. This represents excellent progress as we move from R&D builds to low-rate production. During the quarter, we also took a significant step forward in our relationship with Toyota, forming a joint venture that lays the groundwork for high-volume commercial production, helping to significantly reduce the risk of one of the greatest challenges ahead of us.
We’re incredibly grateful to have had Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, at our side for more than seven years, leaning into that challenge and working with us to bring the best of automotive manufacturing to aviation. We’ll share more about our plans for the strategic alliance in due course, but I’m pleased to say that a senior Toyota manufacturing leader is set to join our Marina team shortly as we continue to work ever more closely together. By investing together in the people, facilities, and systems required for production, we will create a more capital-efficient path to scale, and a manufacturing system designed from the outset to deliver exceptional quality and consistency at volume. I’d like to end where I started, with the eIPP program. As I’ve said, the program promises to be an important opportunity to accelerate commercialization.
A critical part of that will be the safe and effective integration of our aircraft into the national airspace. In April, we announced a partnership with ASI focused on this work. I’d like to congratulate ASI on being recently selected by the FAA to provide the central software infrastructure for managing traffic across the U.S. National Airspace System. ASI is effectively building an operating system for airspace, the invisible infrastructure that will allow us to scale access to our skies. It’s an honor to be partnered with them, and we look forward to collaborating on airspace integration as part of our eIPP work. It’s incredibly exciting to see all of these pieces coming together. I hope everything we’ve shared today gives you a real sense of just how close we are and how ready we are for commercialization.
We’re building the infrastructure, we’re building the aircraft, we’re building the customer base, and we’re building our operational experience. On top of it all, we just had our strongest quarter yet in terms of progress on the fifth and final stage of type certification. Taken together, everything I’ve described today is how we will unlock the third dimension of mobility and turn electric vertical flight from an extraordinary technology into an everyday reality, giving people their time back and fundamentally changing the way we move. With that, I’ll hand it over to Rodrigo.
Rodrigo Brumana, Chief Financial Officer, Joby Aviation: Thank you, Jovan, and good evening, everyone. As Jovan said in the beginning of the call, the revenue raise is a big part of today’s story. Blade is a big part of the reason. The way Blade delivered is exactly what’s giving us the confidence to increase guidance. On a more personal note, it was great to see many of you at Farnborough last month. What struck me there was the energy in the room wasn’t just talk. It was a response to real execution, progress on certification, on manufacturing, and on building the commercial foundation for the eIPP. What I would like to do now is put numbers to that progress and walk you through how we’re deploying capital against it with the usual discipline. Let me start with the second quarter financial results.
We ended the second quarter with approximately $2.3 billion in cash equivalents, and short-term investments. Our Q2 use of cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaled approximately $202 million compared to $195 million in the first quarter, which included the net cash impact of our Ohio facility purchase. Excluding that one-time Ohio investment, our first half 2026 use of cash was $365 million, which is within our guidance range of $340 million-$370 million. Additional detail is available in our Q2 shareholder letter. Total property and equipment investment in the quarter was approximately $29 million compared to $78 million last quarter. With the Ohio purchase behind us, CapEx declined sequentially, though it remains elevated versus prior years as we build out manufacturing capacity. Revenue for Q2 was $39 million, primarily from Blade passenger business, up $14 million from the prior quarter.
Blade delivered a standout quarter supported by the seasonal summer ramp, favorable weather, and elevated demand around major events. We are pleased with that momentum. It exceeded our expectations, and it’s reflected in the raised guidance we’ll walk you through shortly. Total operating expenses for Q2 were $300 million, compared to $258 million in Q1. The $42 million increase was primarily driven by $23 million of continued investment to support certification, manufacturing ramp, and commercial readiness, $11 million in costs related to increase in revenue and $8 million in other expenses. On a GAAP basis, we reported a Q2 net loss of $245 million compared to $110 million in the prior quarter. Most of that increase was related to a $108 million non-cash unfavorable change in the fair value of warrants in earn-out shares. The rest was a $27 million increase in loss from operations.
Keep in mind that fair value revaluation is driven primarily by changes in our share price and can introduce meaningful non-cash volatility from quarter-over-quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP metric that we reconcile to net income in our shareholder letter, was a loss of $197 million in Q2, compared to a loss of $179 million in Q1. The $19 million change quarter-over-quarter reflects the revenue and expense dynamics I just described. Stepping back for a moment, the mix of our spending is shifting to preparation for commercial operations as well as aircraft production. In the first half, capital expenditures were $107 million, including $62 million for Ohio and $15 million for Hollister, where we have invested in expanded flight test capabilities.
We expect capital spending to run below the first half pace in the back half, though still elevated relative to prior years as we keep investing in manufacturing and commercial infrastructure. We will continue to size that spend to respective milestones. As we advance our U.S. go-to-market through eIPP, we are investing in the foundation required to carry passengers. Part 135 operations, maintenance and training, and the systems that turn an aircraft into a running service. It is an exciting time. We see the eIPP as complementary to certification, a parallel path to build, improve the commercial side of the business while certification continues on its own track. We are expanding as we hit milestones, not before. On manufacturing, our joint venture with Toyota lets our teams work side by side to scale production.
It also let us share the investment required to build that capability, leveraging Toyota’s decades of production expertise. As we finalize the remaining supply agreements, we continue to expect Toyota’s $250 million directly investment in Joby to close later this year or early next. On to our guidance. Our approach to capital remains disciplined and milestone driven. As we move through the back half of the year, we are managing spend to optimize for certification progress, production ramp, and increasingly, commercial readiness through the eIPP. For the second half of 2026, we expect to use $385 million-$415 million in cash, primarily to support certification, manufacturing, eIPP, and commercialization. The step-up from the first half reflects deliberate investment in commercial readiness as we scale into operations. As always, we can stage a portion of that spend to match our progress, keeping our usual capital discipline.
On revenue, given Blade’s continued strength and healthy demand for air mobility, we are raising our full year guidance to a range of $115 million-$125 million from a prior $105 million-$115 million range. With $63 million in revenue already recognized in the first half and Blade typically peaking in the third quarter, we feel good about delivering on this increased range. Thank you for your continued support. Operator, please open the call for questions.
Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you’d like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from the line of Andres Sheppard with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.
Andres Sheppard, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald: Hey, everyone. Good afternoon. Congratulations on the quarter and all the great progress. It was great to see everyone at the Farnborough Airshow a few weeks ago. First question I guess I have is just coming back to the eIPP. Again, a lot of great progress here and initial flights in September and first passengers in 2026, very exciting. I guess my question here, maybe for you, Jobin, is how are you thinking about utilizing your current fleet across these projects including maybe your aircrafts in production? How do you expect, I guess, to deploy these across the different projects? Maybe secondly I realize this might be a bit early, but do we have a sense of revenue-generating opportunities that may come from the eIPP? Thank you.
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: Thank you, Andres. It was wonderful to see you in Farnborough. I’ll take the first part of that and then pass it to Rodrigo. The eIPP is really a spectacular opportunity that’s been provided to us. We’re really excited about it. Really excited about beginning that in Texas with our existing fleet, expanding that over the months to come and out into 2027 as we bring more and more aircraft online. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we have our first conforming aircraft flying. We have 12 more that are in production. That’s an increase of four additional aircraft this quarter into our production queue. The reason we’re leaning so hard into manufacturing is the incredible opportunity that we see in front of us, both with the eIPP and, as Rodrigo spoke about, with the incredible performance of the Blade division.
With that, I’ll hand it to Rodrigo.
Rodrigo Brumana, Chief Financial Officer, Joby Aviation: Yes, thanks, JoeBen, and good to see you, Andres, that in Farnborough. It is premature to provide forward guidance on the numbers these days, the reason we’re so excited about this program is because it’s giving us the opportunity to monetize every single aircraft that comes off our production for the foreseeable future. Think about the eIPP markets alone. We’re talking about Texas, Florida, New York. That alone could absorb the whole production for quite some time. Let’s not forget about California, our backyard here. Number 1, we want to maximize that opportunity, that’s why we’re so focused on production growth. We started that not yesterday, we started much earlier than that. Don’t forget, we intended to start passenger operations in Dubai as well. That will be on top.
I think Blade is showing us that vertical lift, what it can do. We saw a record quarter, and you were actually to experience that benefit while you were there in the U.K.
Andres Sheppard, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald: Wonderful. Thank you both. That’s very helpful. Really appreciate that color. Maybe just as a quick follow-up, JoeBen, maybe a bit of an unconventional question, at the Farnborough Airshow, you highlighted hydrogen as an exciting kind of new propulsion system. I guess my question there is maybe can you elaborate on that? How material is that to the story? I know it’s maybe not talked about enough, that was a bit differentiated, so just curious on how you’re thinking about that and maybe some potential opportunities there that you’re considering. Thank you.
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: Thank you so much, Andres. Hydrogen’s been something we began pulling the thread on back six plus years ago. Just to set the context, hydrogen has three times the specific energy of jet fuel, and with our fuel cell systems, we can convert that chemical energy into propulsion about twice as efficiently as a small turbine converts jet fuel into propulsion. As a result, you can do really game-changing things with aircraft design. If you think about this in the context of a long-haul aircraft, take an A320 versus an A350. The A350 flies twice as far with twice as many passengers. It weighs four times as much. It takes off with more weight in jet fuel than weight in passengers. That aircraft also costs four times as much.
It costs twice as much per passenger, weighs twice as much per passenger, and that’s all down to the fuel being very, very heavy. If you have a lighter weight fuel, you can do really game-changing things with aircraft design. We think this is the biggest disruption in aviation since the invention of the turbine engine back in the 1930s. We think that by being one of the world leaders, if not the world leader, we’re going to see really significant upside over the years to come.
Andres Sheppard, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald: Excellent. Very well said. Thank you so much. Congrats again on the quarter, everybody. We’ll pass it on.
Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Savi Syth with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.
Savi Syth, Analyst, Raymond James: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Just on Blade, perhaps. I was kind of curious what you’re seeing given the kind of the fuel increase here and Blade still relying on fuel, just what you’re seeing in terms of kind of pass-through and kind of the ability for demand to kind of absorb that and any high-level thoughts on margins this year versus maybe the potential there as kind of fuel might pull back.
Rodrigo Brumana, Chief Financial Officer, Joby Aviation: Savi, I think your question, and this is Rodrigo here, about the demand. Look, number one, if I look at Blade itself, the acquisition has been a home run. You saw that in the quarters here. We just had the highest number of seats sold in Q2 in our history, and most importantly, the highest numbers of new flies from NYC, in New York, since 2023. What that’s telling you is the demand for vertical lift is very high. Blade has been a home run acquisition for us. We are lapping the first year pretty soon, and they have re-accelerated their growth. That’s coming from the focus from the management in the high demand that we have for the service, and it’s been a very valuable infrastructure that we acquired.
If you think about what we did here, we acquired a already built infrastructure, a loyal and growing customer base that loves the benefits from vertical lift, and a decade of know-how. We put this all together. This is a very growing demand for us. Look, now, in terms of the, I guess your question is more like for the operating costs, I would say flight margin has improved, and you’re not seeing a direct impact that will be flowing through the bottom line. Right now, we are running a business that is not consuming cash, and in fact, it is contributing on the growth. Also, I think the team is doing a pretty good job in terms of selling the capacity that is available to the demand that’s quite high.
Savi Syth, Analyst, Raymond James: That’s helpful. I appreciate that. Maybe if I could briefly follow up on Andre’s question on the eIPP side. Just on the aircraft that you plan to use, is that the certification-conforming aircraft that you plan to use in those flight tests? Or are you able to use some of the kind of prior generation aircraft as well as you progress through that flying?
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: Thank you so much, Savi. We’re going to use a mix of different aircraft, both aircraft from our existing fleet, as well as producing as many aircraft as we possibly can off of our company-conforming production line.
Savi Syth, Analyst, Raymond James: That’s helpful. Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. As a reminder, if anyone has any questions, you may press star one on your telephone keypad to join the question and answer queue. Our next question comes from the line of James Kirby with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.
James Kirby, Analyst, JPMorgan: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks a lot for the time. I just wanted to ask on the scale and ramp, JoeBen, I appreciate the color you answered in the previous question on the four incremental in-development aircraft for a quarter. Is that a right cadence to think of for the back half of the year? I think you mentioned two are expected to be delivered later this year. Is the right way to think about that is that you expect to end the year with seven aircraft flying?
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: Thank you so much. We are, as I mentioned, ramping our manufacturing as aggressively as we can. We’ve been making really phenomenal progress on the non-conformance rate, which translates directly into improvements in efficiency and improvements in output. We are going to continue to add new aircraft into the front end of the build queue because there is a lag between when we start a build and when the aircraft comes out the back end. As I mentioned, we’re targeting at least two aircraft to come off the line, over the back half of the year and hoping to over-deliver.
James Kirby, Analyst, JPMorgan: Got it. That’s really helpful. For my second question, just in light of recent industry announcements on the defense side, maybe just wanted to give you a chance to really just clarify, and I know you’ve been asked on almost every call on the end markets for defense, but maybe just where the defense fits into the Joby ecosystem, and particularly where you prioritize it with the eIPP obviously ramping in the coming months.
Paul Sciarra, Executive Chairman, Joby Aviation: Yeah. Thanks a lot for the question. This is Paul. Obviously, there’s been a lot of conversation across the industry around hybrid VTOL for defense. We have been working on this category for going on two years. Not just working on it, but actually demonstrating improved range, improved capability, in conjunction with moving to a hybrid platform on real aircraft that are flying. We think that puts us in a really strong position to take advantage of the opportunities that we see before us across multiple different customers across the DoD. Now look, the mission types for vertical lift vehicles, for those customer sets are really wide. There are areas in strike, areas in ISR, areas in infil and exfil, particularly for passenger carrying versions that I think are all super exciting for the core capabilities that we’re demonstrating.
I think one of the things that you’re seeing more broadly in defense is that it used to be that specs sort of delivered on capabilities, but actually the reverse is largely true now, or at least there’s an interplay between the two, and it’s demonstrating capabilities that allow you to shape the specifications that the customer wants. That’s why we’ve been doing the work, why we think we’re going to be well positioned to take full opportunity of all of those defense customer use cases.
James Kirby, Analyst, JPMorgan: Got it. Thanks, Paul.
Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Amit Dayal with H.C. Wainwright. Please proceed with your question.
Amit Dayal, Analyst, H.C. Wainwright: Thank you. Greetings, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. With respect to the eIPP program that’s about to start for you guys, are there any aspects of running the eIPP program that could give you certification credits, or should we think of these as separate efforts with no overlap?
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: Yeah. Thank you so much. We do see the potential to accelerate our overall certification program on the back of a lot of the flight testing and experience that we gain through the eIPP program. Just as a recap, we’re working very closely with the FAA as well as local municipalities as we conduct our flights and operations under the eIPP program. That close coordination, we think, has the potential to pay dividends.
Amit Dayal, Analyst, H.C. Wainwright: Thank you. My follow-up, I guess, is around the Atoms partnership. Should we assume this partnership implies that you could be shouldering some of the CapEx that goes into developing the vertiports? Just wanted to see if this potentially adds some additional burden on your balance sheet or if that is not a correct assumption.
Paul Sciarra, Executive Chairman, Joby Aviation: Thanks for the question. It is a co-investment vehicle. Both parties are going to contribute capital. Most importantly, when it comes to the way in which it’s structured, is that Atoms has built up a number of financing relationships over a long period of time, given their work in real estate development and operation for many, many years now. We get to be the beneficiary of a lot of the relationships and the credibility that they’ve already sort of built out. JB already mentioned sort of in the outset, how we’re going to sort of lean on the Atoms team for site identification, procurement, and in turn, sort of build out in operations. That, in turn, means that we have a smaller share of the lift for all of the sites that we develop.
I think the most important thing really is the opportunity to kind of help to define a brand new asset class. With two important new modes of transportation entering U.S. cities over this year and the coming years, that is autonomous vehicles on the ground and eVTOL aircraft in the air, we’re going to need this sort of new infrastructure. I think if we can go out and demonstrate its viability in conjunction with the smart folks over at Atoms, we really can define this new asset class that us and others can continue to develop in more markets and at greater scale over time.
Amit Dayal, Analyst, H.C. Wainwright: Understood. Thank you for that. Just can I maybe ask one question on the two aircraft that you are planning to deliver this year. Who are those going to? If you can share any color on that.
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: As I mentioned at the outset, we have far more demand for aircraft than we have the production or we’re able to produce at the moment. We’re ramping production. We have not specifically decided the destinations for those two aircraft. Dubai and the UAE remain very high on our priority list. We will make strategic decisions as those aircraft come off the line.
Amit Dayal, Analyst, H.C. Wainwright: Thank you, guys. That’s all I have. Appreciate it.
Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Austin Moeller with Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed with your question.
Austin Moeller, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Hi, good afternoon, JoeBen, Rodrigo, and Paul. Of the conforming aircraft that are currently in the assembly phase, do we have any timetable on when some of those are going to come off the line? I know one of them is already in ground testing, but when those would come off the line and start conducting flight tests, because our thinking should be that it’s 12 months from when TIA flight testing starts to cert, correct?
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: Thanks, Austin. Just to kind of recap it for folks, the first step is doing the work on stage 5, as we reported, this is the final stage of certification. We reported record progress on stage 5 this quarter, really thrilled with the work the team’s doing there. That is about running the component level testing, the system level testing, and writing those test reports. Making great progress on that. The second piece is preparing the flight test plans that first Joby pilots will get in and fly on those aircraft. The third leg of the stool is we need to expand the flight envelope on that first conforming aircraft. We’ve done that work already on our prior series of aircraft, which are, for all intents, very similar to our FAA conforming aircraft. We’re, in a sense, repeating those exercises.
The other element that we’re now working on in parallel is this work on the eIPP, we see that as an incredible opportunity, also an additional burden on the team. We think that it has the potential. In the short term, it’s additional effort, as I said earlier, it has the potential to accelerate our overall certification program. The short term may be some extra load.
Austin Moeller, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Okay. Can you comment on the incremental $250 million equity investment that’s expected from Toyota? Does that go to you now, or would that go within the JV?
Rodrigo Brumana, Chief Financial Officer, Joby Aviation: Hey, Austin. Rodrigo here, I look forward to seeing you in the conference next week. Short answer is it’s coming, it’s going to go directly to Joby Inc. Should expect that by the end of the year or early next year.
Austin Moeller, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Awesome. I’ll pass it back there. Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Pierce with Needham & Company. Please proceed with your question.
Chris Pierce, Analyst, Needham & Company: Hey, everyone. Can you help me sort of level set what to expect in September and through the rest of the year in Texas? Should this look like the Electric Skies Tour? Should this look like one flight, or could this be, not high frequency, but an aircraft there flying on a semi-regular basis? Are these passengers kind of one-off type passengers, or are they able to book through the Joby app or the Uber app? I just want to kind of know what we should be looking for at the start and how it progresses.
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: Yeah. Thank you. Just as a recap, this is staged, so it will begin with Joby pilots on board and then progress to passengers and then, further on down the road, paying passengers. That’s the progression you should expect. With the flights, specifically the flights in Texas, we’re planning that over a course of a week. We plan to do a number of flights that allow us to really get comfortable operating in the Dallas-Fort Worth airspace. We see this as a tremendous opportunity, and Texas is a really exciting market for us and for the industry as a whole.
Chris Pierce, Analyst, Needham & Company: Okay. Perfect. That makes sense. Thanks for that. That’s fine. I get it. Okay, perfect. All the talk about ramping production, I guess, how should we think about when you might turn Ohio on, when investors might be able to have boots on the ground and sort of really see the higher tempo production as you move beyond sort of the cadence you laid out in 2027, the cadence you’ve laid out towards the end of this year?
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: Yeah. Thank you. The ramp in Ohio for the components we’re manufacturing there has already gotten going, and the team is doing a spectacular job of producing conforming components out of that facility. We are also ramping at our facilities in San Carlos and in Marina. We expect to continue to ramp each of those facilities in parallel as we increase our manufacturing volume over the quarters to come. If you’re interested in seeing our manufacturing operations, we would love to have you. We think we’re doing a really remarkable job, and it’s really fun to come see.
Chris Pierce, Analyst, Needham & Company: Okay. Just flipping back to Andres’ question. I believe you talked about, sorry if this came up on the call, but Dubai, you’re still anticipating passenger flight there this year, or because of the conflict, that’s sort of, not lower priority, but just that’s a lower likelihood event, or has anything changed in that regard?
JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joby Aviation: Our partners there are as leaned in as ever. The RTA and the GCAA, as well as our infrastructure partners. The first vertiport is done. The second one is close to completion. The third is progressing well. That is really significant because the degree to which the government there is leaned in on making this new mode of transportation a reality. I was over there about a month ago, and we think that Dubai, the UAE, and the region as a whole is a really remarkable and exciting opportunity, and we can’t wait to get back to flying there. As a reminder, we have an aircraft over there, and we can’t wait to get going.
Chris Pierce, Analyst, Needham & Company: Okay. Perfect. Thank you, and good luck.
Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kristine Liwag with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.
Kristine Liwag, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Hey, good morning, everyone. Or I guess good afternoon. By the way, it was great to fly Blade at Farnborough last month. Our roughly 15-minute flight certainly beat the two-hour drive back to Central London. I guess pivoting to Blade, can you provide an update in terms of how you’re viewing that business strategically? Specifically, how much of Blade’s current operations are focused on retaining and servicing the existing customer base versus potentially expanding that customer base ahead of the Joby eVTOL aircraft certification? How do you think about balancing that near-term operating discipline versus accelerating Blade as a demand generation platform?
Paul Sciarra, Executive Chairman, Joby Aviation: Thanks a lot, Kristine. This is Paul. As you saw from the numbers and as you saw from the guide, we’re feeling really good about the existing Blade footprint and really the demand signal that we’re getting from those core markets. The principal issue that we’ve had in terms of scaling it beyond that existing demand is aircraft availability, which is obviously something that we hope to solve with a better, quieter aircraft in relatively short order. Blade has had tons of opportunity to sort of potentially expand its overall footprint. We’re evaluating those on a pretty regular basis. Obviously, some of that work is happening in the eIPP markets that will be Joby launch sites as well, but we’re kind of taking each of them in turn and evaluating the core merits about whether or not it makes sense to do or not.
As I said, in terms of the core of the business, we couldn’t be more pleased with both the signal that we are getting directly from customers, the operational experience that Rob and the broader team bring, given their work on this for years and years, and finally, the insight on the kinds of journeys, not just airport to airport, but airport to non-airport, that really make this whole thing work.
Kristine Liwag, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Great. Super helpful. Thank you, Paul.
Teresa Thuruthiyil, Head of Investor Relations, Joby Aviation: Terrific. Thank you. Thank you to all the analysts who asked questions today. Earlier this week, we invited members of our community to submit questions as well, I think we have time for at least one of those now. The first question actually is about modernizing ATC. The question is: Will Joby have any involvement with ASI’s FAA contract to modernize the air traffic control system? Paul?
Paul Sciarra, Executive Chairman, Joby Aviation: Yeah. We started our partnership with ASI earlier this year, and we were very excited that they were selected by the FAA for one important component of the broader ATC modernization, the sort of SMART program. We will be working with ASI in short order to essentially trial their tools in the existing airspace, both with Blade operations and with Joby eVTOL operations. We see it as a very important sandbox with a small number of aircraft and a limited geography to essentially prove out the additional performance that we can wring in terms of flight frequency from key locations. That’s really the role that we’re going to play in conjunction with ASI on that effort.
Look, more broadly, when you think about the ATC modernization, and there are other pieces of that that are coming, including CAPS, ground infrastructure, all of it is really in service, I think, of allowing us to increase the frequency of both existing and future operations beyond what is possible in existing ATC. It has very real benefit, revenue benefit, and profitability benefit for Joby over time. Even more importantly, it’s really the stepping stone for fully autonomous commercial operation, which we’re progressing well with our Superpilot autonomy stack that we acquired via the Xwing acquisition. The ATC modernization is an opportunity to both increase the revenue opportunity of current and future piloted operations, and then over time, really expand the scope and scale of autonomous operations, which are both super exciting for the long-term business.
Teresa Thuruthiyil, Head of Investor Relations, Joby Aviation: Great. Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining us today. We greatly appreciate your support. We’ll talk to you soon. Operator, please go ahead.
Conference Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today’s conference, and you may disconnect your line at this time. We thank you for your participation.