Joby Aviation: eIPP Flights and Blade Momentum Signal Inflection Point
Aircraft production is accelerating, Blade is beating expectations, and the Toyota JV and Atoms partnership are building the commercial ecosystem—yet the stock remains deep in a drawdown.
JOBY · Earnings Call · 2026-08-05
From Certification to Commercialization
For years, Joby Aviation's story has been one of promise: a quiet, electric vertical-lift aircraft that could transform urban mobility. But the second-quarter 2026 report marks a pivot from 'promise' to 'delivery.' As CEO JoeBen Bevirt noted on the call, “we're now at the point where we're preparing for commercial service.” — JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-05 The headline news is the start of eIPP flights in Texas next month, a White House-backed program that allows Joby to fly its aircraft in real-world operations well ahead of full type certification. With five aircraft already in the air—including the first FAA-conforming unit—and twelve more in production, the company is building the fleet to back the ambition. The vertical lift theme is now translating into concrete milestones. Nonconformance rates in manufacturing have dropped nearly 40% in the first half, a sign that the production system is maturing. The company expects to deliver at least two aircraft this year, with the eIPP program absorbing much of the output. As CFO Rodrigo Brumana explained, “we are raising our full year guidance to a range of $115 million to $125 million” — Rodrigo Brumana, Chief Financial Officer · 2026-08-05—a direct result of Blade's strong revenue performance and demand for air mobility.Blade: The Demand Engine
Blade, acquired a year ago, is now the financial engine. Seats sold in Q2 were up over 50% year-over-year, marking the best Q2 in Blade's history. The New York–Hamptons route grew more than 40%, and the Monaco Grand Prix alone drove 4,500 seats. This is not just a busineess recovering; it is a platform proving that customers value the time savings of vertical lift. As Bevirt put it, "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." (component 1643614537726624392). The revenue raise is modest in dollar terms but significant in trajectory. Revenue in Q2 was $39 million, up from $25 million in Q1 (a 56% sequential increase). Total revenue for 2026 is trending toward the $115–125M guidance, with Blade typically peaking in Q3. This shift—from pure R&D burn to a mix of service revenue and production—is exactly what the market needed to see.Building the Ecosystem: Toyota, Atoms, and ASI
Beyond the aircraft itself, Joby is assembling the infrastructure to scale. The Atoms team partnership, announced this week, is a strategic play to develop mobility hubs that pair eVTOL vertiports with autonomous vehicle depots. The ATC modernization effort with ASI, meanwhile, addresses the invisible bottleneck to high-volume airspace use. As Bevirt noted,The Toyota joint venture is another de-risking move. By sharing production know-how and capital, Joby reduces the risk of scaling manufacturing—a known challenege. The company also signed a multi-year deal with Virgin Atlantic to explore U.K. services. These moves are consistent with the company's long-standing focus on vertical integration, but they now come with dates and partners attached. In prior quarters, Joby has spoken about the need to build the “ecosystem” around the aircraft. This quarter, that talk matured into agreements. As Paul Sciarra said on the Q1 call, “the best crystal ball we've got at the moment is that we'll be signing or that agreements will start being signed in Q3.” — JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer · 2026-05-06 That is now happening, and investors are watching. The stock, however, tells a different story. JOBY is down 63% from its August 2025 peak, and the 90-day trend remains negative. The market is pricing in execution risk, but this quarter's operational progress—and the raised guidance—suggest the company is hitting its milestones. If eIPP flights go as planned and Blade continues to grow, the next few quarters could change the narrative.ASI is effectively building an operating system for airspace, the invisible infrastructure that will allow us to scale access to our skies.