Joby Aviation - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• JOBY reported Q2 2025 GAAP net loss of $324.7M and diluted EPS of $(0.41), driven by a $126.3M non-cash loss from revaluation of warrants/earn-out and a $40.3M loss on common stock issuance; adjusted EBITDA loss was $(131.6)M.
• Operational progress was strong: first TIA-conforming aircraft moved to final assembly; Stage 4 certification reached 70% on the Joby side and >50% on the FAA side; 21 full-transition flights completed in Dubai; cash and short-term investments ended at $0.991B.
• Commercialization accelerated via definitive agreement to acquire Blade’s passenger business (up to $125M), expanded ANA partnership to deploy >100 aircraft in Japan, and L3Harris collaboration on a gas-turbine hybrid VTOL for defense.
• Guidance maintained: 2025 cash use of $500–$540M; FAA pilots expected to begin TIA flights early next year; DXB vertiport targeted for Q1 2026 and first passengers in Dubai in 2026.
• Stock-relevant catalysts: tangible certification milestones, Blade asset acquisition/infrastructure access, Toyota’s $250M tranche close, and defense pathway with L3Harris; offset by larger GAAP losses from non-cash derivative revaluations.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Certification momentum: “the first of five aircraft for TIA flight testing is headed to final assembly,” with Stage 4 now 70% complete on Joby’s side and >50% on FAA’s side.
• Dubai readiness: completed 21 piloted full-transition flights in ~110°F ambient temperatures, validating thermal management, ground operations, and infrastructure for commercial service.
• Commercial acceleration: definitive agreement to acquire Blade’s passenger business unlocks NYC and Southern Europe infrastructure and a 50,000+ flier base; management: “This gives us a defensible first mover advantage”.

What Went Wrong

• GAAP P&L volatility: Q2 GAAP net loss deepened to $324.7M, largely from a $126.3M non-cash revaluation of warrants/earn-out and a $40.3M private placement loss; adjusted EBITDA also widened YoY and QoQ.
• Revenue remains de minimis: flight services revenue was $0.015M in Q2 2025 vs. $0.028M in Q2 2024, highlighting limited near-term commercial revenue before certification/service launch.
• Estimate misses: Q2 “Primary EPS” actual was below consensus and revenue missed; similar misses in Q1 2025, underscoring near-term income statement headwinds before commercialization ramps [GetEstimates]*.

Transcript

Speaker 7

Greetings and welcome to the Joby Aviation second quarter fiscal year 2025 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in 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 Teresa Thuruthiyil, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Good afternoon and evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Joby Aviation's second quarter 2025 financial results conference call. I'm Teresa Thuruthiyil, Joby's Head of Investor Relations. We will begin the discussion with remarks from JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Rodrigo Brumana, Chief Financial Officer. Paul Sciarra, our Executive Chairman, will be joining us later for Q&A. 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.

The forward-looking statements included in this call are made only as of the date of this call, and the company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them. Also, 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 2025 shareholder letter, which you can find on our Investor Relations website along with the replay of this call. With all of that said, I'll now turn the call over to JoeBen.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Teresa, and thank you everyone for joining us today. The last quarter was one of our best yet. We're delivering at an exceptional level on all fronts: on certification, on manufacturing, and on commercialization. We have so much to talk about that I'm going to get straight into it. The progress we've reported this quarter is unparalleled, supported by an incredible team, years of planning, and a wealth of flight testing. To put our flight testing into context, in July alone, we completed 76 separate flights with four different aircraft in three different locations around the world. These included both piloted and remotely piloted flights with vertical takeoffs, full transitions, and vertical landings. The amount of flight testing matters because it's the core of our certification effort.

It's the way you drive maturity into an aircraft program, whether for commercial or defense use, and it's the way you wring out technical issues to mitigate expensive changes later in the certification process. Our team is delivering day in and day out, and they know that if you're in the business of flying aircraft, you have to actually fly aircraft. In stage four of certification, we're now 70% complete on the Joby side and more than 50% complete on the FAA side, up 10 points from last quarter. We're gearing up for stage five. During this stage, Joby and FAA pilots will fly our aircraft to validate all of our certification work ahead of receiving a type certification. I'm pleased to say, as we announced this morning, the first of five aircraft for TIA flight testing is headed to final assembly.

We remain on track to start flying our TIA aircraft with Joby pilots this year and to begin TIA certification flights with FAA pilots early next year. For context, this is a milestone you don't reach at the flip of a switch. There are very few, if any, certification processes that are as involved as the steps required to reach type inspection authorization. It's multivariable, time-intensive, and relies on not just your own execution, but also that of the FAA. We've been at this for more than a decade, developing, iterating, and collaborating on paper and in practice. We've taken a concept and turned it into a conforming design with approved test plans and the ability to manufacture under a quality management system, all in alignment with the FAA. We're now putting the keystone in the arch. Alongside our certification progress, the global regulatory momentum is undeniable.

Here in the U.S., the White House, DOT, and FAA are setting the pace for next-generation aviation. For eVTOL, the Executive Order on Drone Dominance directs the FAA and DOT to establish programs for state and local governments to partner with companies like ours on early operations. Globally, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S., and the UK, markets with huge long-term opportunity for Joby, came together to streamline international validation of FAA type certification for aircraft like ours. This took years of public-private collaboration that we expect to pay dividends in the years to come. I was also particularly excited that the FAA finalized the MOSAIC and BB loss rules, which opened a world of opportunity for new personal aircraft, new propulsion systems, and new ways of flying. I have been on this mission with Joby for more than 15 years.

We're witnessing a global sea change in the regulatory landscape that I believe will define the next century of aviation. In doing so, I believe we are defining the very fabric of how we will live. Each of the ingredients that I have just spoken about, the maturity of our platform, the rigorous aircraft testing, and the progress we're making on certification all contribute to our success on commercialization. This quarter was pivotal. We completed flight testing in Dubai. We reached a definitive agreement to acquire Blade's Passenger Business. We signed agreements for aircraft with long-term partners Abdul Latif Jameel and ANA Holdings. With L3Harris Technologies, we're exploring opportunities to leverage our existing technology platform for defense applications. Let's start with Dubai. Earlier this summer, we achieved another industry first.

We completed a multi-week campaign in the UAE with 21 piloted flights, including vertical takeoff, transition to wingborne flight, and vertical landing. We did this in challenging real-world conditions. We delivered sustained operations in temperatures nearing 110 degrees Fahrenheit. We gained invaluable insights about the performance of our aircraft as we prepare to move from flight testing to exhibition flights and on to commercial service. With the acquisition of Blade, we're accelerating our readiness for commercial eVTOL operations globally, including in Dubai. Over the last decade, Rob and the team at Blade have built a scaled VTOL business, operational expertise, and a premium customer experience. The Blade acquisition delivers much more than operational experience. On day one post-certification, Joby will have the infrastructure, team, and routes to start electrified service in key U.S. and international markets.

This gives us a defensible first-mover advantage and creates a competitive edge that will be difficult to replicate. We'll also have access today to a deep and loyal customer base with a demonstrated high willingness to pay to save time. Last year alone, Blade moved more than 50,000 passengers. The plan is simple. We take the existing Blade operations and we add eVTOL. This will allow us to expand route maps, fly higher tempo operations given the lower noise profile, and increase margins with lower operating costs than helicopters. While we're waiting for our eVTOL to come online, we'll be able to build Joby's market-leading operational software into Blade to drive efficiency and improve customer experience. We have three paths to commercialization. In addition to the owned and operated service, we're pursuing direct sales and regional partnerships.

Yesterday, we announced plans to establish a joint venture with our partner ANA Holdings. The plan is to deploy more than 100 aircraft in the region, as well as build an air taxi service ecosystem. We need pilot training, vertiports, and maintenance just as much as we need the aircraft. Through this collaboration, we see potential to build a playbook to replicate in other markets. Similarly, we're making progress on distribution. With longstanding investor Abdul Latif Jameel, we announced we're exploring the sale of up to 200 aircraft in Saudi Arabia, valued at approximately $1 billion. Abdul Latif Jameel has deep ties in the Middle East, and we look forward to growing this relationship. Finally, we announced a new collaboration with L3Harris Technologies to develop a hybrid variant of our existing aircraft to pursue low-altitude defense opportunities.

To be clear, defense and dual-use technology has always been a core to Joby's strategy, a point demonstrated by our long history with the DOD. We already set the pace for VTOL in defense, being the first and only company to deliver eVTOL aircraft to a government customer facility, which we've now done twice. We are the only company to have already shown electric VTOL aircraft can be hybridized for longer range with our record-breaking 561-mile hydrogen electric flight last summer. We are leveraging that history, adapting our existing platform with turbine electric propulsion and missionization. We are now ready to set the pace again with flight tests of this new variant expected to start this fall and operational demonstrations expected in early 2026 with government customers.

With our existing production capability, we are confident we can move quickly from demonstration to deployment, a testament to the value of a dual-use approach. We also see this work benefiting our commercial operations. The work we will do to mature vehicle-level autonomy and turbine electric powertrains can feed back into our commercial business, allowing for commercial products that are faster and longer range. This work comes at a critical time in the retooling of U.S. and allied defense. The DOD has requested $9.4 billion in the FY26 budget to advance uncrewed and remotely operated aircraft, and we see significant opportunity for Joby and our partners. As our path to certification and commercialization becomes increasingly clear, our next challenge will be scaling production capacity to meet demand.

This is not an easy task, but it is one that we are well placed to tackle. I am incredibly proud of the progress we have already made to establish conforming production lines, and with our first TIA aircraft moving to final assembly, I am confident we are leading the way. The expansion of our Marina facility is an important step on the road to scale. It will double our production capacity to two dozen aircraft per year, and our Dayton facility is now coming online. This dual-site strategy is designed to scale horizontally and eventually produce up to 500 aircraft per year.

As an engineer, I care very deeply about manufacturing, and I love walking the manufacturing floors to see where we can drive process and efficiency improvements from the current line, including adding automation to reduce costs and increase efficiency and throughput. We are only at the beginning of the S-curve, so while early improvements will be significant, they will not be easy. The base we are building from is strong. We are leading the way on production-conforming lines. We are leading the way on ramping production. Of course, we have Toyota, the world's leading automaker, at our side. Rodrigo, over to you.

Speaker 3

Thanks, JoeBen, and hello everyone. I'm thrilled to be joining Joby at such a pivotal time. What brought me here is simple. This is a company building a reality that does not exist today. Joby will make air travel an everyday reality, but that's not an easy task. The team is solving hard problems with rigor from certification to manufacturing to global deployment. What stood out to me is the rare alignment of vision, execution, and capital. We have a strong balance sheet, long-term partners, and a team that understands how to turn bold ideas into tangible outcomes. In every conversation I had before joining, whether with engineers, test pilots, or operating leaders, I saw the same thing: quiet excellence and relentless focus. In my first few weeks on the job, I witnessed the team coming together to deliver the historic Dubai flights with precision, intensity, and pride.

It showed me what this company is made of. As a newcomer, I can say with high conviction, this is the real deal. As CFO, my focus is very clear. Number one, ensure we scale methodically. Number two, stay disciplined with capital. Number three, translate our technical and regulatory progress into long-term value. Now, shifting to our Q2 financial results. We ended the second quarter of 2025 with cash and short-term investments totaling $991 million. We closed the first $250 million tranche from Toyota and received an additional $41 million through our ATM facility. Our Q2 2025 use of cash totaled $112 million, $10 million lower than last quarter, primarily due to having one less payroll run in the quarter, partially offset by growth in operating expenses. This spending also included about $12 million on property and equipment.

We remain on track with our full year 2025 guidance of $500 million to $540 million in use of cash, excluding any potential impact from our proposed acquisition of Blade Air Mobility's passenger business. On a GAAP basis, we reported a Q2 net loss of $325 million, which includes a $168 million operating loss and a $157 million non-operating loss, both impacted by non-cash items. The net loss was $242 million higher than the prior quarter, primarily due to an increase in our share price reflecting an unfavorable non-cash revaluation of warrants, burn-out shares, and the Toyota first tranche investment that we received. Total operating expenses for the quarter were $168 million, up about $5 million from the prior quarter. The increase was driven by higher staffing and progress spend to support key milestones, including progress on the final assembly of our first TIA aircraft.

Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP metric that we reconcile to our net income in our shareholder letter, was a loss of $132 million in the second quarter. This was about $4 million higher than the prior quarter, reflecting the increased spending I mentioned before. Compared to the same period last year, our adjusted EBITDA loss was $24 million higher, reflecting growth in our organization to support the design, manufacture, and the certification progress of our aircraft and earned investments related to commercialization. As JoeBen said before, 2025 has been and will continue to be a pivotal year for Joby and for this new industry. You should expect us to keep flying in diverse conditions and locations, forging new partnerships, and laying the groundwork for support across regulations, infrastructure, and operations.

You should see the closing of our Blade acquisition and the integration of their operating know-how as a key advantage in preparing for commercial service. You should see us continue maturing our low-rate manufacturing efforts into scaled production capabilities and leveraging our best-in-class partner, Toyota, to do this together. You should also stay tuned as we develop hybrid aircraft for U.S. defense, combining Joby's VTOL and autonomy capabilities with L3Harris' expertise. Joby remains the only company to deliver eVTOLs to a U.S. Air Force base and fly full transition piloted and unpiloted missions of full-scale eVTOL aircraft today. I want to be realistic about the amount of work we have in front of us. It is not going to be easy. We're building a reality that does not exist today.

Our path will be challenging, but we embrace it and are executing with tangible results as we shape our future lines of revenue. Now, with our three paths to generating revenue in mind, let's recap. Number one, as an air taxi operator, director of consumer business, we made an exciting acquisition that is expected to accelerate our timeline. We have a strong backing from local and global regulators, and we continue to demonstrate our commitment to bring flying to everyday life. Number two, for partner service, our relationship with ANA in Japan provides an opportunity to collaborate on the air taxi ecosystem in a key market. Number three, under the banner of aircraft sales, we look forward to sharing more about our distribution relationship with Abdul Latif Jameel for electric aircraft and with L3Harris Technologies for autonomous and hybrid aircraft. We look forward to continuing sharing our progress with you.

At this time, operator, please open the call for questions.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad, and a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your headset before pressing the star keys. The first question comes from the line of Austin Nathan Moeller with Canaccord Genuity Corp. Please proceed.

Hi, good afternoon. My first question here. Now that you've bought Blade, are you preparing to, or are you planning to provide S4 eVTOLs to the local charter operators that own those helicopters and have a similar model to Blade, or are you still planning to operate and own the aircraft yourselves?

Speaker 0

Thanks a lot, Austin. This is JoeBen. We're going to remain flexible on that. Here in the U.S., we do have a preference for retaining the long-term free cash flow and the long-term revenues from the passenger service. We do see Blade's asset-light model as being a valuable one. I think as you look at our partnership with ANA Holdings, where our operation in Japan will be co-owned, that also gives us the opportunity to pull forward revenue. With our distribution partnership with Abdul Latif Jameel in Saudi Arabia, where we could be potentially selling aircraft, that would be another way to pull forward revenue. We do see a balance, and we see the model that Blade has as giving us flexibility, and thank you for highlighting that opportunity.

Okay. Just to follow up on the TIA aircraft that you're constructing, are you able to discuss what the specs of that are, like the maximum takeoff weight or if you stretch the fuselage at all? The six aircraft that you're building for TIA testing, they're all expected to have different % of conforming parts to perform specific tests, correct?

Yeah, so a couple of clarifications there. One, the aircraft is nearly identical to the aircraft that we've been flying before, but I really want to pound the table on how exciting this moment is. This is the culmination of more than a decade of hard work from the Joby team and close collaboration with the FAA. In order to build this aircraft, we had FAA DARs on the factory floor with us regularly doing inspections. They're inspecting the build of the aircraft against our quality systems. This has to be, this is the final, this is the finish line, right? The aircraft that we're building is, before we could even start building it, we had to have a design that met all of the certification standards that we'd agreed to through phase one, two, three, and four of the certification program.

All the progress that we've been reporting to you each quarter against stage one, against stage two, against three, and four, that has all built to this moment. All of the work that we've done maturing our manufacturing systems and processes, that has built to this moment. As I said in my prepared remarks, this is us putting the keystone in the arch. This is preparing for this really magical moment when this aircraft takes to the air and then with Joby pilots, and then we do four credit flights for certification credit with the FAA pilots on board. We're so proud, and I really want to emphasize what a big deal this is for the whole Joby team. Yeah, really just so grateful, and it's a huge day for us today.

Very exciting. Thanks for the call, JoeBen.

Speaker 7

The next question comes from the line of Kristine T. Liwag with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

Hey, good afternoon, guys. You know you've had a very, very jam-packed quarter, so congrats on all these milestones. With the acquisition of the Blade Air Mobility network, can you talk about how you're thinking about your first initial commercial service in the U.S.? How did that change now that you own Blade Air Mobility? Where would you see your first initial cities where you're serving in the U.S. after this acquisition?

Speaker 0

Thank you so much, Kristine. We do see incredible demand and incredible opportunities in markets across the country and around the world. This acquisition of Blade Air Mobility really supercharges our operations in New York with an incredible existing operations team, amazing vertiport infrastructure, exclusive lounges, and a loyal customer base. We're just absolutely thrilled with the way that we believe this will allow us to really ramp our operations in New York much faster than we had previously planned on.

Being based in New York, very excited to see that come to fruition. Following up on the certification regarding, I guess, airspace usage. Have you sorted with the municipalities in New York about the ability to use the Joby aircraft in these vertiports? Is that all sorted? Are you just waiting for the aircraft certification now, or are there additional approvals you need before you enter into service there?

We don't expect any additional work on the airspace side beyond what the Blade Air Mobility operations currently entail. We work very closely with air traffic controllers in multiple markets across the country, and we've been doing really groundbreaking planning for new vertiports. I'd also love to highlight the incredible work that the FAA is doing and that Secretary Sean Duffy has spoken about on enhancing and modernizing our air traffic control framework. We think that's really fantastic and exciting. I want to remind folks that once we get type certification, we also need to take and put our Joby aircraft onto a Part 135 operating certificate before we begin passenger service. We do have the opportunity to do air tours prior to the aircraft going on the 135, but that is an additional step on top of the type certification.

Great. That's wonderful. Just following up lastly on the type certification, you said you're 75% of the way through for stage four. Can you talk about the remaining 25%? What is there left to do? What would the stage five process look like?

Yeah, just one correction on the Joby side. We're 70% complete, and the remaining 30% will come in over the next year or so as we progress the final pieces there. I want to be really clear that we do not need to be at 100% on stage four prior to beginning the TIA work. Some of those stage four pieces are not required for the TIA flight test. We're at a very, very strong place both on the Joby side and on the FAA side to deliver on our goals of beginning the TIA flight test with FAA pilots on board early next year. The momentum is just absolutely phenomenal, and we're so grateful to the FAA for the incredible lean-in that they've shown for many quarters in a row here, just really going above and beyond.

Wonderful. Thank you very much, and congratulations again on your progress.

Thank you.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Thank you. Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from the line of William Chapman Peterson with JPMorgan Chase & Co. Please proceed.

Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Really, a lot of terrific progress in the last quarter. I'd like to start off with the first question on Blade and maybe expand it from some of the prior questions. What are the specific plans for expanding the passenger business currently in New York and in Southern Europe? Do you see any additional opportunities for passengers to expand in other parts in the world or other cities in the U.S.? This is assuming with helicopters first. What does the team plan to do with Blade's jet and other business that seems like on face value maybe has a little bit less synergies?

Speaker 2

Thanks a lot, Bill. This is Paul. We do actually see opportunities to continue to expand Blade's existing business even ahead of certification of our aircraft. That wasn't the reason for the acquisition. The reason for the acquisition is that the big limitation of that business has been essentially the sort of vehicles that they were using. We think we've got an opportunity to both expand the route map, lower costs, or increase margin, and in turn, fly higher temporal operations given the lower noise profile of our vehicle. Those, I think, are really the pieces that are going to be important to more rapidly taking full advantage of the important groundwork that Rob and the team at Blade have laid.

Okay. Yeah, thanks for that. For my second question, given the call out around the DOD's budget request for $9.4 billion for autonomous and hybrid aircraft, what do you think this can translate in terms of opportunity for Joby? I guess, can this help fund R&D work or specific contracts or something else we should be looking at?

Thanks a lot, Bill. This is Paul again. Two pieces to your question. Look, along the way, there's always opportunities for R&D funding to essentially offset some of the work that's necessary to deliver on the vehicles that we're talking about. That's been a strategy that we've used very effectively over the course of our engagements with DOD over the last six or seven years. Most importantly, and I think what you should see in the announcement with L3Harris Technologies is that we're sort of taking the next step in terms of missionizing this aircraft for the right use cases kind of against key contracts, whether existing or future, that are matched against the capability gaps for different branches. We're really pleased to be working with L3Harris Technologies on that front.

Because of the depth of their engagement with many of these customers, they have a very strong understanding of kind of where those gaps are. Over the course of both the flight demonstrations in the fall, and even more importantly, the demonstrations with customers early next year, that's going to, I think, be the opportunity to sort of open up the commercialization effort in a very significant way with the DOD.

Perfect. Again, great progress. I'll pass it on. You can call us for a lot more questions, but I want to be mindful for the rest of the analysts.

Speaker 7

The next question comes from the line of Christopher Alan Pierce with Needham & Company. Please proceed.

Hey, you guys recently updated us on the Marina facility. I was wondering, and sorry if I missed this, but when might we hear more about the Ohio facility and more scaled production? I understand you don't want to produce these things at scale until you know you're further down the road with certification. This is a sort of a backdoor we'd ask about certification timing, but I guess when might we hear about Ohio manufacturing cadence, margin on the OEM side of the business? Just kind of details around that would be helpful for modeling.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Chris. As I mentioned previously, we're really trying to think about this in a multi-site horizontal scaled approach. First, with Marina, we are thrilled with the timeline that we were able to build and begin to populate our larger manufacturing facility there, more than doubling our manufacturing footprint in Marina. We are also really pleased with the work that the team is doing to mature and accelerate the build rate of both the components and the aircraft. Just today, got a report that we had manufactured 18,000 components in July alone. It shows that Joby manufacturing globally is just hitting its stride and becoming more and more efficient and more and more productive. With regard to your question about Ohio, we're thrilled with the acquisition of our first building there and the build-out of that.

We're thrilled to be building our team in Ohio, doing training, and can't wait for parts to start coming out of that facility. We are also extremely excited about opportunities to continue to expand our Ohio footprint and the incredible support we've received from both Dayton and the state of Ohio and Jobs Ohio. They've been absolutely spectacular partners for us.

Okay. Appreciate the detail. On slide eight, when you talked about Dubai, you know you're talking about this one vertiport in the first quarter of 2026. Does that get back to Part 135 and touring, where it might be a kind of something you can do with passengers in the first quarter of 2026, but then you need further build-out in like hotels or things like that? Or is there already infrastructure to land these things with passengers? I just want to get a sense of what needs to be done beyond what's in the letter to kind of start higher tempo passenger flight in Dubai.

It's a great question. I think one of the amazing things about the flights that we did over there is that some of our key partners and potential partners were able to come and see flights, including many folks on the real estate and real estate development side. The amount of interest and the excitement from real estate developers, both in Dubai and around the world, has never been greater. The ability to have a quiet electric aircraft land at your development and deliver folks, for example, from the airport to the Palm in a matter of minutes rather than nearly an hour, that's a game changer. We do see really significant momentum in opening up additional takeoff and landing locations.

Additionally, as I believe you're aware, our partner for building the vertiports in Dubai is Skyports, and they're making fantastic progress alongside RTA, the Roads and Transport Authority, in planning and building out the network of vertiports in Dubai. As you mentioned, the first vertiport that broke ground at DXB, the airport there, is making great progress. We're really excited to bring additional nodes online in the Dubai network and thrilled with the momentum we're seeing in Dubai overall.

Okay. Lastly, on Blade, is it fair to say that Blade didn't have any exclusive properties, but you gained a potential first-mover advantage, or is there more to it than that?

Blade, one, has a number of exclusive lounges. The real estate available at many of these vertiports is quite limited, and it's valuable to have a place for passengers to wait out of the sun, out of the rain while they're getting ready to board their flight. We do feel like, although many of these sites are public access, having a lounge and a facility at those locations is extraordinarily valuable. Blade also has a large network of takeoff and landing locations in Europe, as well as the greater New York area. We think that network of takeoff and landing locations is an incredibly valuable and underappreciated asset, and we couldn't be more thrilled to be able to count that as a Joby asset now.

Okay. Appreciate the time and good luck.

Thank you.

Speaker 7

As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from the line of Savanthi Nipunika Prelis-Syth with Raymond James. Please proceed.

Hey, good afternoon. It's definitely an action-packed quarter here. If I can go back to the CERT aircraft, you know, can I clarify if you're out of policy completely? This is just kind of the execution side. Like the MOC CERT plans are approved without placeholders, or is this kind of being built at risk a little bit?

Speaker 0

I would say that we are very much in the final, yes, I would say that we're substantially out of policy, if not completely out of policy. The real focus right now with the FAA is on finalizing all of our TIA flight test plans. I'm really, really thrilled with the lean-in from the FAA on that front. Of course, there's still the 50% of stage four that the FAA has to approve. Again, the progress that, they're just putting points on the board day after day. We feel extraordinarily good about where we are with the FAA and as well as where we are in terms of the design and manufacture of this aircraft. We think that this is a huge, huge milestone that we announced today. I'm just thrilled with the execution of the testing team. I don't know that I emphasized that enough.

We didn't just finish building this airframe. We finished testing this airframe. It's going into final assembly, and it's got lots of green check marks.

That's great. Maybe along those lines, as we kind of look forward to this certification testing, I know each aircraft, I think you said you'll build five, will be designed to test something different. I wonder if you can talk a little bit about what the first aircraft will be designed to test and what we can look forward to.

Yeah. There are multiple TIA tests that we're working on, getting the test plans that we're working on getting approval with the FAA. Each one of those, each of the test plans, has a specific one of those five aircraft that it's going to get, that we plan to test it against. There is some flexibility, but we're targeting it. The other thing I should emphasize is that we've started building parts for all five of those aircraft. Some of them are, you know, this one, for example, has now completed the testing. We have multiple others where the airframes are undergoing the airframe assembly process, and we're building components and systems for many of them. We're in full swing, and I couldn't be more proud of the work that our incredible manufacturing team is doing across the sites in San Carlos, Marina, and soon Ohio.

Absolutely thrilled and grateful to everybody on the Joby manufacturing team.

I appreciate that, JoeBen. If I might ask a quick follow-up on a previous kind of question on the defense side, have you kind of identified any specific programs of record? I'm just kind of curious how meaningful that can be. I know you quoted a big DOD number, but was curious how much realistic kind of opportunity that could be pursued here?

Speaker 2

Thanks, Savi. This is Paul. Scoping up, this is a big moment, I think, for rethink in terms of what the future of military aviation looks like. Recent conflicts have certainly shown that, you know, the sort of paradigm of large, expensive, crewed helicopters for a wide variety of missions may not be the right one on a go-forward basis. We think we've got an opportunity in conjunction with L3Harris Technologies to essentially build something that is cheaper, quieter, autonomous, and essentially flexible for a wide range of use cases. We called out a few, I think, in the announcement, including contested logistics, counter UAS, so counter drone, and in turn, electronic warfare. Fortunately, we are partnered with someone that has incredible payloads across each of those sort of functions.

To answer your question, there are core existing programs that we are going after, but some of this is also about shaping programs in light of that big rethink that I mentioned at the front end. What I think is very important in this sort of moment is being able to translate very quickly from demonstration into deployment. That's where I think this dual-use approach, essentially leveraging the same technologies and the same manufacturing lines that we're using for the commercial side, really pays dividends both to us as a company and in turn to our customers in defense.

That's helpful, Paul. Thank you.

Speaker 7

The next question comes from the line of Amit Dayal with H.C. Wainwright & Co. Please proceed.

Thank you, good afternoon, everyone, and congrats on all the progress this quarter. With respect to the certification timeline, do you have a sense of whether it's, you know, next two or three quarters, or is it a little bit longer before you know you are completely set up to get into operations?

Speaker 0

Thank you for the question, Amit. Just to be clear, what we're guiding to is that we're on schedule to begin flying the TIA aircraft with Joby pilots by later this year and to begin flying with FAA pilots on board by early next year. Those are the flights that the FAA pilots fly to confirm that we are compliant, and that's what gives us points on the board for stage five. Once those are complete, we're in the final stretch of stage five and type certification.

Understood. Thank you for that. Is the Blade deal closed for you guys? I just want to see when we can potentially see contribution from the Blade operations in your financials. Is it 4Q maybe we can see that?

Speaker 3

Yeah, Amit, Rajeev here. We just signed, and it'll take a few weeks to close. More guidance when we get there. Right now, we are just in the process of announcing it. As you know, very typical, it'll take a few weeks to close.

Understood. Yeah, those are the questions I had for now. I'll take more of the questions offline. Thank you.

Speaker 0

Thank you.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that is all the time we have for today. We thank you for your participation in today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.