The advent of helicopter-hailing apps – And they may soon give way to flying cars.
(The Economist, 11.07.2019)
RIDE-HAILING APPS are hardly new, and neither are helicopter flights, but the combination of the two is still rare. Uber is among the companies hoping to change that.
Since June 9th frequent users of its app can reserve a seat on an Uber Copter. The new service features a helicopter flight between Lower Manhattan, in New York, and the city’s JFK airport. Skipping rush-hour traffic costs customers between $200 and $225, but saves them a couple of hours. That is how long it can take to drive the distance in heavy traffic; Uber Copter will cover it in 8 minutes.
Uber is not the first to launch such a service. The Airbus-owned Voom offers in-app bookings of helicopter flights in the perpetually congested São Paulo and Mexico City. These helicopter services allow the companies to gain in-air experience before the prospective launch of large-scale air-taxi fleets in the future. They want to find out when during the day they should take off, which potential customers are willing to pay, and how they can move their passengers to and through future heliports. Gathering data and gaining experience now might give them an edge over their competitors once the air-taxi market takes off.