Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, Ga., U.S.) is embarking on a multi-year, multi-market commercial and operational partnership with Joby Aviation (Santa Cruz, Calif., U.S.), to deliver transformational, sustainable home-to-airport transportation service to Delta customers, beginning in New York and Los Angeles.

As part of the arrangement, the companies will work together to integrate a Joby-operated service into Delta’s customer-facing channels, providing customers who travel with Delta through New York and Los Angeles the opportunity to reserve a seat for zero-operating-emission, short-range journeys to and from city airports when booking Delta travel.

Joby’s composites-intensive aircraft is designed to fly fast, quiet and sustainable trips in and around cities (see “Joby Aviation maintains momentum with eVTOL certification, operational and manufacturing readiness”). The aircraft has flown more than 1,000 test flights, demonstrating its range, speed, altitude and low-noise profile. The company claims it was the first electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company to be granted a G-1 (Stage 4) Certification Basis for its aircraft by the FAA and recently received its Part 135 Air Carrier Certification.

Delta has made an upfront equity investment of $60 million in Joby, with the opportunity to expand the total investment up to $200 million as the partners achieve substantive milestones on the development and delivery of the service. The partners will work together to create a differentiated, premium experience for Delta customers featuring seamless booking, simplified transit and greater time savings. This will run alongside Joby’s standard airport service in priority markets. The partnership will be mutually exclusive across the U.S. and U.K. for five years following commercial launch, with the potential to extend that period. 

“Delta always looks forward and embraces opportunities to lead the future, and we’ve found in Joby a partner that shares our pioneering spirit and commitment to delivering innovative, seamless experiences that are better for our customers, their journeys and our world,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian says. “This is a groundbreaking opportunity for Delta to deliver a time-saving, uniquely premium home-to-airport solution for customers in key markets we’ve been investing and innovating in for many years.”

Delta says it has long made strategic investments in unique commercial partnerships that deliver value and drive growth for individual businesses. From investments in companies such as CLEAR and Wheels Up, to a worldwide network of alliance partners, Delta’s partnerships have played a key role in Delta’s efforts to transform the travel experience.

“We share Delta’s unwavering commitment to delivering seamless and sustainable journeys to customers,” Joby founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt adds. “Their history of innovation, along with their operational expertise and leadership on climate change, make them incredible partners for Joby, and it’s an honor to be working alongside them.”

This year alone, Delta unveiled multi-billion-dollar terminal transformations at both New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Los Angeles International, further cementing its commitment to those hubs and creating a more efficient and seamless experience for customers from the moment they arrive at the airport. The airline also continues to invest in digital identity technology in these and other airports, which enables customers to move through the airport using facial matching, eliminating the need to show a boarding pass or government ID and thereby expediting their journeys. Delta also recently debuted its Parallel Reality experience at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, bringing to life a technology that was first previewed at CES in 2020.