Tampa, Florida: Joby Air Taxi Retraces the 1914 Tampa Bay Flight as Florida's First Air Taxi Flights Begin

TAMPA, Fla. - An electric air taxi lifted off from downtown St. Petersburg on Friday morning and crossed Tampa Bay to Tampa International Airport, flying the same route where commercial aviation began 112 years ago.

The piloted Joby Aviation aircraft took off from Albert Whitted Airport and landed at Tampa International, opening a week of piloted flights across Florida. Hundreds of residents gathered at Albert Whitted Park for a community event hosted by the City of St. Petersburg to watch the takeoff, and a second electric aircraft from BETA Technologies also demonstrated along the historic route.

The flight retraced the trip Tony Jannus flew on January 1, 1914, when he carried former St. Petersburg Mayor Abe Pheil across the bay on what is recognized as the world's first scheduled commercial airline flight. That first airline, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, crossed the bay in about 23 minutes, charged five dollars a ticket, and carried 1,205 passengers before its last flight in May 1914.

A state program, not a ticket for sale

Friday's flights were Florida's first under the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, a White House backed federal program the U.S. Department of Transportation announced in March 2026 to speed the safe introduction of electric air taxis. The Florida Department of Transportation project was one of eight selected nationwide, and it is planned in three phases covering passenger transportation, cargo delivery, automation and medical response.

"This morning, history was made in Tampa Bay with Florida's first Advanced Air Mobility electric aircraft demonstration flights," Gov. Ron DeSantis said. "From the first commercial airline flight over Tampa Bay in 1914, to today's AAM demonstrations along that same historic route, Florida has long been a launchpad for new ideas that shape the future of transportation."

The state has put money behind the idea. In April 2026, DeSantis signed House Bill 1093, which allows the transportation department to fund vertiport infrastructure statewide. The department is also building SunTrax Air, a dedicated test campus off Interstate 4 that holds the nation's first dedicated aerial test track for this kind of aircraft, where testing is planned to begin by the end of 2026.

Orlando and the Space Coast are next

Through the coming week, Joby will fly at Orlando International Airport, landing at a new vertiport near Terminal C and the train station, and at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center. The flights are meant to map the first phase of Florida's planned Aerial Highway Network, the state's planned intercity air taxi system.

None of this is a service the public can use yet. Friday's flights were demonstrations, passengers cannot book an electric air taxi trip in Tampa, and no fare or start date for commercial service has been announced. Joby said in August that it was targeting its first passengers in 2026, and two months from the end of the year the company has published no fare and no booking date for Tampa Bay or anywhere else in Florida.