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News · · 2 min read

FlightGlobal's visible report says commercial eVTOL flights under the pilot program face a high bar

FlightGlobal reported on October 27, 2026, in the visible standfirst, that a regulatory official suggests air-taxi type certificates may be an easier path than commercial-flight approvals under the eIPP. The article body is behind a subscription wall. AviNews, citing that interview, reports FAA official Caitlin Locke said pre-type-certificate revenue operations will be very limited, with conditions and limitations. That is a comment, not a new rule.

FAAeIPP

White and blue Joby eVTOL with six tilting propellers flying low over an airport runway, registration N545JX
Photograph FlightGlobal placed on its October 27, 2026 article. The caption says Joby Aviation last month completed demonstration flights of its eVTOL in Texas under the FAA's pilot programme. The credit on the page is Joby Aviation. The caption does not give the days, and it does not say this is a revenue flight. It is not a photograph of the official discussed in the standfirst. Image: Joby Aviation

FlightGlobal reported on October 27, 2026, in an article by Jon Hemmerdinger, that a regulatory official suggests achieving air taxi type certificates may be an easier path than securing commercial-flight approvals under the eIPP programme. That sentence is the standfirst on the page that loaded. The article body is behind a subscription prompt. The visible page does not name the official, does not quote the official, and does not set out a new rule.

AviNews, citing FlightGlobal, reports that Caitlin Locke, the FAA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Oversight and Certification, said that even if the agency allows revenue-generating commercial operations by eVTOL aircraft that have not yet received type certification, such activity "will be very limited." AviNews says that in an interview with FlightGlobal published on October 27, she said any such request would face rigorous review and would have to be well justified by the lessons the FAA expects to draw from it, and that conditions and limitations would be placed on it. The AviNews page opened for this report carries the date October 29. The quotation and Locke's title are AviNews's account of the FlightGlobal interview. This page did not read the interview itself.

AviNews also writes that, according to an FAA fact sheet, the eIPP rests on partnerships between government entities and companies and is not a way to bypass certification standards. This page did not open that fact sheet. AviNews's own "Why It Matters" line is the site's framing. It is not a quotation from Locke.

What the photograph is

The photograph is the one FlightGlobal placed on the October 27 article. Its caption says Joby Aviation last month completed demonstration flights of its eVTOL in Texas under the FAA's pilot programme, and the credit on the page is Joby Aviation. The caption says "last month." It does not give the days. This site's October 8 report described a Joby campaign in Texas from September 10 to 14. FlightGlobal's caption does not say this picture is that campaign. The picture is not a photograph of a revenue flight, and the visible FlightGlobal page does not tie it to the official's comment.

What is not established

The standfirst is a suggestion attributed to an unnamed regulatory official, on the page FlightGlobal showed without a subscription. AviNews names Locke and quotes her. Neither page is a rule, an order, or an amended regulation. Neither page says a pre-type-certificate revenue flight has been approved. A comment that any such operations "will be very limited" is not itself a grant of permission, and it is not a type certificate.

Sources

Facts as reported by the linked sources as of Nov 11, 2026. Company targets are plans, not guarantees. Corrections: see About.