Archer and United Airlines outline planned New York network
April 18, 2025
Archer Aviation and strategic investor United Airlines have revealed their proposed New York City air taxi network, intending to replace ground-based journeys in and around the Manhattan area with five-to-15-minute flights aboard Archer’s Midnight aircraft.
The concept of operation would see customers book flights aboard Archer’s four-passenger ‘Midnight’ aircraft, “reducing door-to-door travel times,” explains the OEM. Archer Aviation founder and CEO Adam Goldstein added that with the New York region “home to three of the world’s pre-eminent airports, serving upwards of 150 million passengers annually,” he wanted to give people the option to trade “painful” ground-based connections to “complete trips in mere minutes”.
With Goldstein believing that New York “could be one of the first markets for air taxis in the United States,” the newly unveiled network plans complement previously-announced intentions to implement air taxi solutions in California’s San Francisco and Los Angeles. Although timescale has been allocated to the New York network, Archer has suggested its LA network to be operational by as early as 2026.
With the initiative designed to include vertiports “at existing aviation assets around the region, including both airports and NYC helipads,” Archer says it is working closely with new and existing infrastructure partners to “develop and electrify aviation assets in this proposed network”. These include existing players Atlantic Aviation, Signature Aviation and Skyports/GroupeADP, as well as newcomers Modern Aviation and Air Pegasus.
Major airports detailed in the scheme include JFK, LaGuardia and Newark, while Westchester County, Teterboro and Republic Airports are also listed. Existing helipads include East 34th Street Heliport, Downtown Skyport and West 30th Street Heliport.
United Airlines, meanwhile, believes its strategic collaboration with Archer “will be key to [its] efforts to build and optimise the infrastructure – such as real estate development, airspace management, and safety and security protocols,” explained head of United Airlines Ventures Andrew Chang. The airline first invested in Archer as part of its August 2023 $215 million equity investment round, having also agreed to purchase up to $1.5 billion of Midnight aircraft the year before.
With Archer’s Midnight currently pursuing FAA type certification, scaled production of the craft is expected to commence this year at Archer’s 400,000 square foot facility in Georgia. Output is expected to start at two aircraft a month by the end of the year, ultimately scaling to 650 units annually by 2030. However, ahead of an anticipated US rollout, commercial operations may well commence in the UAE, with Archer having revealed a ‘Launch Edition’ Midnight in partnership with Abu Dhabi Aviation in February.
