Electric air taxi manufacturer Archer Aviation’s plans to ferry spectators and athletes across the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are beginning to take shape.
Archer this week revealed it partnered with entertainment company AEG to build what the manufacturer said is the first vertiport announced for downtown LA. Vertiports, which are being developed nationwide, are expected to resemble heliports with additional amenities for electric aircraft such as Archer’s Midnight, including chargers. They could be located either on- or off-airport.
Midnight, an eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) model, is designed to maintain the runway independence of rotorcraft while producing less noise and emissions. Archer envisions the air taxi replacing hour-plus drives with more direct, 10-to-20-minute trips by air. Midnight is intended for a pilot to fly up to four passengers on short, urban hops, cruising on fixed wings at a top speed of 150 mph and charging for about 10 minutes between flights.
“We see this as a one-of-a-kind opportunity to add a flagship downtown location to our planned Los Angeles air taxi network ahead of the LA28 Games,” said Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer, in remarks accompanying the announcement.
LA28, the committee organizing the 2028 Games, last year picked Archer as the official air taxi provider for the event and for Team USA. The company on Monday brought a Team USA-branded Midnight to downtown’s L.A. Live entertainment district, where it will be on public display through Tuesday.
L.A. Live, AEG’s 4 million-square-foot live entertainment center, is the planned site for the vertiport. Archer would serve as the exclusive provider of air taxi service to and from L.A. Live and said the project will turn the site into a “showcase for urban air mobility innovation”—even before the Games begin.
Powering the site will be electric aircraft chargers developed by Beta Technologies. Archer and Beta this year formed America’s Consortium for Electric Skyways (ACES) to build a Tesla-like network of 250 air taxi operating sites by 2030.
L.A. Live is adjacent to AEG-owned Crypto.com Arena, home to the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers. Similarly, Archer in 2024 said it was in discussions with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams on potentially exclusive vertiports near SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, a planned Olympic venue. Both locations could allow the company to provide spectators access to marquee events.
Archer described the AEG collaboration as an exclusive, multi-year partnership.
“This is an ambitious project and exactly the kind of forward-thinking collaboration that blends infrastructure and technology in service of our fans, visitors, and the broader community,” said Nick Baker, president and CEO of AEG Global Partnerships, which brokered the agreement.
Archer’s Olympic-Sized Plans
Archer is concurrently developing air taxi networks around cities such as New York, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area in partnership with United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. But it has big plans for Los Angeles, both during and after the Olympics.
In 2025, Goldstein told FLYING that Archer aims to offer on-demand air taxi service for the Games. A news release announcing its selection as the official air taxi provider notes that Midnight could also be used for security and emergency response. It further hinted that the air taxi could feature in opening and closing ceremonies.
“We’re especially focused on winning Los Angeles, because if we can prove electric air taxis work in one of the world’s most congested, complex, and highly regulated cities, I believe we can subsequently scale the product across the U.S. and the world,” Goldstein said on Archer’s third-quarter 2025 earnings call.
In addition to L.A. Live, Archer previously said Midnight would operate out of Los Angeles International Airport (KLAX), Orange County (KSNA), Santa Monica (KSMO), Hollywood Burbank (KBUR), Long Beach (KLGB), and Van Nuys (KVNY). Other planned nodes include SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the University of Southern California.
In November, Archer announced plans to acquire Hawthorne Municipal Airport’s (KHHR) 30-year lease for $126 million. It said Hawthorne will be the LA network’s “operational hub.” Goldstein said on X that the firm views Hawthorne as “LA’s Grand Central Station for air taxis” and the “first purpose-built eVTOL hub at the center of a world-class aviation corridor,” as well as a hub for maintenance and storage.
Archer said it and AEG completed an “initial feasibility study” for the L.A. Live site, including land-use and airspace reviews as well as power availability and community impact. It said they are now reviewing the service’s operational approach and guest experience.
Still, there is no guarantee that Midnight flies passengers during the Games.
At the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, German eVTOL manufacturer Volocopter bowed to pressure from local officials, cancelling planned passenger flights and instead conducting demonstrations. In 2025, LA County Public Works, which operates five area airports, told FLYING it had no firm plans with Archer for Olympic services, adding that it was working to set up a meeting.
Archer continues to operate as though on-demand Olympic flights will happen. Earlier this month, it completed Midnight’s first piloted, city-to-city flight between Salinas and Monterrey, California. However, those airports lack the urban surroundings of L.A. Live, and Midnight operated conventionally using a runway rather than in VTOL mode.
Like Volocopter’s VoloCity, Midnight is not yet commercially certified. But Archer will look to accelerate its type certification program through the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), for which it was part of three successful bids. The eIPP projects, each led by a state or local agency, will span three years and see precertified aircraft—including Midnight—fly into airports nationwide. By the end of the eIPP, operators hope to fly passengers for revenue.
Archer and its competitors have seen their certification timelines slip over the years. It will need to complete that process—and stand up vertiports outside L.A. Live—to bring its envisioned Olympic network to fruition.