Uber launches its first ever HELICOPTER service to fly customers from Manhattan to JFK in eight minutes for $200 and vows to roll it out across the country
- Uber launches feature today, which costs between $200 and $250 for 8 minutes
- Available to Platinum and Diamond Uber members who earned points on the app
- New York’s mayor Bill de Blasio expressed concern about the service, following a fatal helicopter crash in the city
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.
Passengers can be picked up from their homes to a HeliFlite charter for an eight minute ride to the airport
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.