Joby Aviation, Inc (NYSE:JOBY) has become a centerpiece of the air taxi narrative, with investors focused on certification timelines and aircraft performance. But that focus may be misplaced. The bigger risk isn't whether these aircraft can fly—it's whether they'll have enough places to land.

The Air Taxi Trade May Be Missing The Real Risk

"Without vertiports, there is no Advanced Air Mobility," Skyports Infrastructure CEO Duncan Walker told Benzinga in an exclusive email interview. eVTOLs are designed for short, urban trips, but without a dense network of landing and charging sites in convenient locations, the model quickly breaks down.

If passengers need to spend 30 minutes reaching a vertiport, the time advantage disappears, Walker noted.

Certification Isn't The Finish Line

For Joby Aviation and peers like Vertical Aerospace Ltd (NYSE:EVTL) , certification remains the near-term milestone. But Walker points to what comes after as the real constraint.

Once aircraft are approved and production scales, the bottleneck may shift to infrastructure. Vertiports—especially in dense urban environments—are complex to build, slow to permit, and dependent on government alignment.

That creates a timing gap. Aircraft could be ready before the network they rely on is built out.

It's also where the value chain may quietly shift. Much like airports in traditional aviation, vertiport operators could sit on a more stable, less volatile layer compared to manufacturers and operators.

Dubai Is Moving While Others Plan

If the bottleneck is infrastructure, some cities are already trying to get ahead of it.

Dubai is emerging as an early leader, with Skyports building its first commercial vertiport network there. The key differentiator, Walker notes, is top-level government backing—aligning regulators, developers, and operators around a single goal.

That level of coordination is harder to replicate in more fragmented markets, which is why Skyports is prioritizing regions with strong policy support, including the Middle East, before expanding into APAC and the U.S.

The Real Race May Be On The Ground

The vertiport opportunity extends beyond passenger flights.

Skyports is designing its infrastructure to support cargo drones, emergency services, and logistics, positioning vertiports as multi-use urban aviation hubs. And once the first commercial routes go live, Walker expects a surge in demand as cities race to build their own networks.

For Joby Aviation, that reframes the investment case. The question is no longer just about getting aircraft into the sky—but whether the ground infrastructure will be ready in time to support them.

Image created using artificial intelligence via ChatGPT.