Uber launches its first ever HELICOPTER service

Uber have today launched its first helicopter service, ferrying passengers from Manhattan to JFK for $200 – $250 for a one-way trip.

Passengers can be picked up from their homes to a HeliFlite charter for an eight minute ride to the airport. 

The ride sharing app hopes to roll the service out across the country. 

The feature will be available across all of SoHo, and in some areas with access to the West Side Highway. 

Helicopter rides are only available to Platinum and Diamond Uber member, which is customers who have spent more than $2,500 on Uber Pool or Uber Eats, or $833 or Uber X.   

The vehicle, known as the Uber Copter, seats five people. Passengers can bring a hand luggage and handbag or laptop case.

However, the plans haven’t been universally welcomed.

The feature will be available across all of SoHo, and in some areas with access to the West Side Highway

New York’s mayor Bill de Blasio expressed concern about the service,  following a fatal helicopter crash in the city.

‘I think we need a full ban on any helicopters going over Manhattan itself,’ he said at the time.

The news confirms Uber’s ambitions to move beyond city streets with its ‘aerial ridesharing’ efforts coordinated through its Uber Elevate team.

‘Uber Copter offers the first real demonstration of the Elevate experience,’ said Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate.

The news confirms Uber’s ambitions to move beyond city streets with its ‘aerial ridesharing’ efforts coordinated through its Uber Elevate team

The flights will help gather data for a wide rollout of Uber air transportation in the coming years, according to Allison.

While other helicopter services are available to New York airports, Uber is touting this as a ‘seamless’ solution that includes all ground transportation and which can be booked on its smartphone app.

Uber has previously announced plans for shared air transportation by 2023 between suburbs and cities, and potentially within cities in the United States and other countries.  

It has been working with partners to develop ‘flying cars’ or small, electric aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capability.

California-based Uber, the largest of the global ride-sharing firms, made a rocky stock market debut last month, raising $8 billion at a valuation of some $82 billion. 

It shares slumped in the first days of trade and have only recently bounced back to their offering level.

Uber said it lost $1 billion in the first three months of 2019 on revenue of $3.1 billion.

WHAT IS UBER AIR AND HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

UberAir is a network of small, electric, aircraft that enable four-person ridesharing flights in densely populated areas. Artist’s impression shown

UberAir is a network of small, electric, aircraft that enable four-person ridesharing flights in densely populated areas.

The ‘electrical vertical take-off and landing vehicles’ (eVTOLs) differ from helicopters in that they are quieter, safer, more affordable, and more environmentally-friendly, Uber claims.

Users will order the aircraft through the Uber app much like they would one of the firm’s taxis.

Once they have selected an UberAIR ride, the craft will fly to the nearest ‘Skyport’ – a series of launch pads spread across the city.

Uber estimates that an all-electric, 200mph (320kph) ride across the skies of Los Angeles will be price-competitive with an UberX trip of the same distance.

Uber predicts that trips from LAX to the Staples Centre during rush hour can be reduced from up to 1 hour 20 minutes on the ground to less than 30 minutes using UberAir.

Its prediction includes UberX transfers to and from UberAir launch pads – the flight over LA itself will take around four minutes, the firm said.

 The plan will rely on a network of ‘Skyports,’ which will allow the VTOL Uber Air craft to take off and land on rooftops across the country