Flying taxis in Italy have moved from concept to concrete plan. Archer Aviation, the Californian company behind the electric Midnight aircraft, has signed an agreement with Italy's flag carrier ITA Airways to explore an air taxi network linking airports with city centres and other key destinations. Announced on 29 October, the deal makes ITA the first European airline to join Archer's growing roster of carrier partners.

The pitch is simple: swap a 60-90 minute road trip for a 10-20 minute flight. Archer reckons a hop from Rome Fiumicino Airport to the city centre could take under 10 minutes — a tempting option at an airport that handled more than 50 million passengers for the first time last year. ITA's role will be weaving the service into its existing network of over 70 destinations, with specialist partners expected to handle the flying itself.

What's the aircraft like? Midnight is battery-powered, takes off and lands vertically, and carries a pilot plus up to four passengers with zero operating emissions. During a recent three-day demo in California it flew over 200 miles across seven cities, hitting 131 mph and covering Oakland to San Francisco's Marina District in roughly 10 minutes.

Don't book your air taxi just yet, though. There's no launch date, no named operator and no aircraft order. Midnight hasn't been certified to carry passengers, and commercial services in Europe need sign-off from EASA. Italy's regulator ENAC has reportedly offered Grottaglie Airport as a test site, and Rome isn't a blank canvas either — Fiumicino already has an experimental vertiport, used for a piloted Volocopter flight back in 2022.

Why should travellers care? Because airport-to-city transfers in Rome, Milan or other Italian hubs could eventually become a quick, quiet flight instead of an hour in traffic. ITA sits inside the Lufthansa Group and Star Alliance, so if this works, the model could spread across European connections where a 20-minute transfer could mean the difference between making and missing a flight. It's also part of a wider shift: Archer is already pushing ahead in the US and the UAE, and Italy — one of the most visited countries on Earth — is a natural proving ground.

For now, treat this as a sign of where airport transfers are heading rather than a bookable service. But next time you're grinding through Roman traffic after a long-haul flight, it's worth remembering that a 10-minute alternative may not be far off.