Electric air taxi eyes Santa Monica Airport as closure looms Play

An electric taxi service wants to base its operations at Santa Monica Airport — just as the city plans to close the airport for good.

Joby Aviation is negotiating with the City of Santa Monica to use the northern side of the airport as a terminal for test flights, just in time for the 2028 Olympics.

Santa Monica is obligated under federal law to accept all aviation company proposals to operate at the airport. But that commitment ends at the end of 2028, and Santa Monica voters have overwhelmingly endorsed closing the airport and returning it to use as a park.

Santa Monica residents passed a bond in 1926 to construct a city park. But during the Great Depression and World War II, the park was converted to an aircraft factory and airport.

Westside property owners have been pressing for the airport to close. It is the largest source of training flights over Malibu.

Joby says it will start flying electric vertical takeoff planes in L.A. airspace this fall. The demonstration flights would be similar to what Joby has conducted in New York and San Francisco. Joby is the official air taxi provider of the LA28 Olympic Games.

One problem: Santa Monica Airport does not have enough electrical supply to charge the aircraft batteries. Joby instead proposes a battery energy storage system that could be moved onto the ramp. It's not clear where those batteries would be charged.

Airport commissioners at a recent meeting raised questions about fire-safety ratings for aviation-grade batteries.

It appears that Santa Monica has its hands tied and may be required to allow the air taxi operation even as it seeks to close the airport. That's the situation with an airline — JSX — which has just started flying six flights per day out of Santa Monica to Las Vegas, Napa and Scottsdale.