TOKYO — Airline ANA said Thursday that, together with a US start-up, it hopes to have electric “air taxis” whizzing over Japan from as early as 2027.

ANA and California-based Joby Aviation said they will establish a joint venture with a view to deploying more than 100 of the five-seater aircraft.

Flying taxies will “revolutionise our air mobility”, Koji Shibata, president and CEO of ANA, said in a statement Tuesday. 

An ANA spokesman told AFP on Thursday that the aircraft, designed to carry a pilot and up to four passengers at speeds of up to 320km/h, could be in service from as early as 2027.

The project primarily envisages trips between Narita and Haneda airports and Tokyo, although the routes can diversify in the future.  

Currently, a car or train ride between central Tokyo and Narita typically takes an hour or longer, but Joby’s five-seater can shorten this to around 15 minutes, ANA said. 

There are no price details yet, but ANA wants to make the service as affordable as possible for the general public, a spokesman told AFP.