Electric Air Taxis Planned for Austin, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth — San Antonio Not in the First Wave
Archer Aviation unveiled planned air taxi networks for the three big Texas Triangle metros on Friday, promising 10-to-20-minute flights in place of hour-plus drives — a first wave that does not include San Antonio, with commercial service still ahead of it.
AUSTIN — Archer Aviation on Friday revealed plans for three air taxi networks serving Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, the company announced — a bid to connect major airports, business districts and coastal destinations across the Texas Triangle, which the company notes is home to more than 20 million people. The planned networks are built around Archer's all-electric Midnight air taxi and are designed, the company says, to turn 60-to-90-minute drives into 10-to-20-minute flights. "Texas is setting the bar for America's leadership in the next generation of aviation," Archer founder and CEO Adam Goldstein said in the announcement.
The maps are specific. In Dallas-Fort Worth, the network would connect Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas Love Field, Addison, Arlington Municipal, Fort Worth Meacham and Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance airports with business hubs including Frisco Station, the development around The Star, the Dallas Cowboys' headquarters. Houston's network would link George Bush Intercontinental, William P. Hobby and Sugar Land Regional airports with the Thompson Hotel Helipad downtown and Galveston. Austin's would connect Austin-Bergstrom International and Austin Executive airports with the F1 Circuit Helipad at Circuit of The Americas. Senator Ted Cruz, quoted in the announcement, said the networks would "allow Texans to reclaim their time" and strengthen American leadership in the skies.
What Friday's announcement is — and is not — matters. These are planned networks, not operating service: Archer is still pursuing FAA certification of the four-passenger Midnight, commercial passenger service will not begin immediately, and initial operations would use existing general aviation facilities and fixed-base operators, with demonstration flights ahead, Flying magazine reported. Archer is displaying the Midnight aircraft at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in Austin from October 22 to 25, and the company says a consortium it launched is working with the Texas Department of Transportation and state and local partners on charging infrastructure at airports and other sites under the White House's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program.
For San Antonio, the news in the announcement is an absence: the first wave names the Triangle's other three big metros and does not include a San Antonio network. The Alamo City sits at the Triangle's southwestern corner on the same congested corridors — I-35 to Austin, I-10 to Houston — that the air taxi pitch is built on, and the Texas Desk will follow whether a later wave reaches here. The Houston, Austin and Dallas bureaus contributed the city files to this report.
