Florida Selected for FAA's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program as State Maps Air Taxi Corridors and Expands SunTrax Test Facility
Why It MattersState-level eVTOL pilot partnerships tie manufacturer test aircraft, vertiport buildout and route planning to a single regulatory framework, with Florida positioned as an early U.S. launch market.
Florida could become the first U.S. state to launch a commercial advanced air mobility network after the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) was selected for the FAA's three-year eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), which launched in March. The FAA said the program will form public-private partnerships with state, local, tribal and territorial government entities and private companies to develop new frameworks and regulations for safe AAM operations. More than 30 proposals were submitted nationwide and the FAA chose eight.
Archer Aviation, BETA Technologies, Electra, Eve Air Mobility and Joby Aviation will supply test aircraft to FDOT, whose proposal covers cargo delivery, passenger transportation and medical response operations. Performance will be evaluated at SunTrax, FDOT's 775-acre test-track facility in Auburndale, Polk County, which has been expanded with a 212-acre aviation campus: six vertiports, a new 3,000-foot runway, high-speed charging pads, 20,000-square-foot hangars and a four-story building for research, development and training.
FDOT has mapped routes that roughly follow the state's interstate corridors. The first phase starts with Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando, followed by Port St. Lucie to Miami, Tampa to Naples, Miami to Key West and Pensacola to Tallahassee. A second phase would add Daytona Beach to Jacksonville, Sebring to the east and west coasts, Orlando to Lake City, Tampa to Tallahassee and Jacksonville to Tallahassee. FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue has called Florida the target market for AAM and vertiport development.
Luis Perin, Eve Air Mobility's head of business development for the Americas, said Eve's memorandum of understanding with FDOT is aimed at maximizing learning in a controlled test environment. Eve expects FAA certification in 2028 and will conduct test flights in Brazil in the meantime; it reports about 2,700 letters of intent for its $5 million Eve 100, which would total about $13.5 billion in sales. Orlando International Airport is pursuing a small vertiport described as a "vertistop," used mainly for eVTOL testing. Brett Fay of Tampa International Airport said New York, Chicago and Los Angeles are also competing but that Florida will likely be one of the initial launch markets.
