Joby Aviation leases North Texas site for air taxi manufacturing and testing

Joby Aviation has leased a 45,000-square-foot space at the Alliance Air Trade Center, part of Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Haslet, Texas, for the manufacturing and testing of electric air taxis. The company announced the lease on Aug. 6. It is the first North Texas lease taken by a manufacturer of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. The Santa Cruz-based company said the site will serve as a base for demonstrating air mobility services across the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the wider state. Joby intends to validate operations for electric air taxi service in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation and to support future air taxi operations in the metroplex. Greg Bowles, Joby's chief policy officer, said establishing a presence in Texas places the company in one of the country's more significant markets. Joby launched an all-electric flight experience in San Francisco in March and has logged more than 50,000 miles across its fleet. Under the White House-backed eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, the company can begin early operations in 10 states: Arizona, Florida, Idaho, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Utah. It also holds space in Dayton, Ohio, and Marina, California, and has said it plans to build four aircraft per month in 2027, double its current rate. Perot Field is described as the first industrial airport purpose-built for cargo and corporate aviation and anchors AllianceTexas, a 27,000-acre development with more than 600 companies. Christopher Ash, president of Alliance Aviation Companies, said Joby's arrival in the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone advances the integration of eVTOL technology into the region's transportation network. Joby is headquartered in Santa Cruz, and its expansion plans are among the clearest local examples of hard tech scaling from county-based engineering into multi-state manufacturing. Growth in production capacity, whether in Marina or Texas, shapes the engineering, supplier and workforce demand that flows back to the company's Santa Cruz County base.