New York City's first-ever electric air taxi flight

STORY: This electric air taxi could soon be transporting passengers from J-F-K airport to downtown Manhattan in a matter of minutes.

Manufacturer Joby Aviation hopes to offer the service by 2025, with founder and CEO Joeben Bervit calling the emission-free, quiet aircraft a game changer for sustainable transport

(Joeben Bevirt, Founder and CEO, Joby Aviation)

"This is our electric air taxi. It takes off and lands vertically, transitions, flies on the wing. It seats a pilot and four passengers and flies at speeds of up to 200 miles an hour, and what that means is that a flight from here in Manhattan to JFK can take as little as 7 minutes.

Joby Aviation carried out an exhibition flight at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport in New York.

It was the city's first-ever electric air taxi flight and the first time Joby has flown in an urban setting.

The company says the craft only takes about five minutes to recharge - the time it would take for passengers to unload and board.

The idea is that travelers will book their trip using a rideshare app with the cost of the journey yet to be confirmed.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was there to witness the test flight, as he tries to position the city as a global leader in sustainable transportation

(Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City)

"Here, at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, we are going to establish the world's first heliport with infrastructure for electric powered helicopters of this nature."

"This is a bold new vision on what we want to accomplish as a city. We know how important it is to just also bring down the noise, and as I just learned, how far the noise can travel."

Joby Aviation is in the third of five stages of certification with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),

and is already ramping up production of the aircraft.

"These aircraft are game changers because they're dramatically quieter, which means that we can put takeoff and landing locations in more places around cities like New York, bringing access to this faster and more beautiful mode of transportation to more and more people, both here in New York and around the world."

"We are ramping up our manufacturing capacity as fast as possible. We have our pilot manufacturing line in California already sending out aircraft and we've announced that we'll be building a larger facility in Dayton, Ohio, to continue to ramp that production."