It’s safe to say that nobody likes to sit in standstill traffic. It’s a universal experience. A company called Archer is working on a way to solve the traffic problem by going into the sky. 

Archer recently hit a milestone when its all-electric Midnight aircraft finished a piloted round-trip flight between Salinas Municipal Airport and Monterey Regional Airport in California. This milestone is significant because each leg of the air taxi’s trip took just about nine minutes. California drivers will know that driving this takes at least 35 minutes.

Archer worked closely with the FAA to make this inter-city flight possible. It’s a big step forward as the company gets ready to officially launch operations later this year under the White House’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP).

Eliminating the 90-Minute Commute

A view from Midnight’s cockpit during Archer’s round trip journey between Salinas and Monterey; Photo: Archer Aviation

The Midnight air taxi was built for short, time-saving commutes, similar to the milestone journey between the airports. The idea is to replace 60 to 90-minute ground commutes with quiet, all-electric flights, completely bypassing traffic congestion.

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“This round-trip journey is exactly the kind of route we plan to fly with Midnight under the eIPP and in LA during the Olympic Games,” said Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer. “This mission provides a template for us to replicate with our partners across Texas, Florida, and New York as we get ready for eIPP operations later this year.”

Next Stop: Los Angeles

Archer is already preparing for operations in Los Angeles. They have an exclusive partnership to be the Official Air Taxi Provider for the LA28 Olympic Games.

To make this all work, Archer is busy teaming up with federal, state, and local governments across their partner states. They have to figure out all the procedures, build the infrastructure, and set up the local operations needed to actually support everyday commercial air taxi flights.

The concept will make you wonder how close we are in 2026 to the futuristic 2015 Hill Valley from Back to the Future II, where flying cars were a staple to the fictional town.