Ride-hailing company Uber is taking to the air in New York City where users with a little cash to spare will soon be able to book helicopter flights to John F. Kennedy International airport through their apps.
Announcing its Copter offer the company said on Thursday, flights to and from Lower Manhattan will become available to all Uber users.Company has made the feature available to its premium members in June.
This helicopter roughly eight-minute helicopter ride will cost roughly between $200 and $225 per person and include ground transportation on either side of the trip,but the price fluctuates depending on demand. Passengers can bring along a small suitcase and have to watch a safety video before takeoff, similar to that on an airplane.
The company is giving riders the alternative to skip the traffic jam and hail a helicopter to the airport instead, provided they can shell out the money.
The helicopter service is available to all Uber riders with iPhones instead of just those in the top tiers of its rewards program. Uber hopes to deploy it to Android users soon.
Some helicopter companies are moving away from the exclusivity of chartered rides, selling by the seat instead of the entire helicopter, for what is basically ride-sharing in the sky.
Blade Urban Air Mobility, which offers shared helicopter flights from Manhattan to airports, the Hamptons and Nantucket, among other destinations, charges $195 to the airports each way. Its riders can book shared helicopter flights through a smartphone app less than an hour before takeoff. Voom, owned by plane maker Airbus, launched shared helicopter flights in San Francisco last week.
While Uber helicopters are far more expensive than public transit, and twice as much as some car services that can cost $100 or more during rush hour, the flight time between lower Manhattan and JFK is hard to beat: eight minutes. Uber cars will also pick up passengers on either end of the trip.
“We think that there are definitely customers for whom there’s a high value on time,” said Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate.
Uber’s helicopters are owned and operated by a company called HeliFlite. The service is available weekdays from about 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
With concerns mounting over congestion and vehicle emissions, Uber hopes its NYC Copter project will pave the way for Uber Air, a taxi service of electric “vertical take-off and landing” aircraft.
