Driving To JFK Is Now Something Only Suckers And Interns Do
This actually looks like a pretty good deal... this NYC startup is taking people by helicopter to JFK and expanding their services beyond. The uberization of the skies has begun! Over all I think this is great, why not target the air travel segment, a severely under utilized area for last-mine type transportation.
Driving To JFK Is Now Something Only Suckers And Interns Do
In fact, almost every New Yorker can recount a moment in their life in which they came to fully believe that they would die of old age sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway. That temporal anguish is only deepened when the travel is for work and one can smell the money burning as the time ticks away.
the time savings compared to a black car or Uber that can run up to the $150-$200 range almost justify BLADE’s one-way fare of $295.
I really don't know how they are profitable with this setup, taking into account insurance costs and wages. Pilots don't come cheap, and I'm sure livery in the sky must take some sort of permitting/noise tax.
Any thoughts on the scalability of this? Would you pay for this service?
They crowd-fund each ride in a way that works similar to uberPool - even though it's $295/pp that could potentially be sharing a ride with 7 others, so the total revenue per trip is really around ~$2360
I drive to JFK every week from Westchester you jerk.
One of my mates brother started up an airline leasing learjets and flying around from Sydney - Melbourne and a few other places... Apparently their is good money in the sky (private of course)
Entry-level pilots aren't expensive. Also, helicopters don't have huge ground staff necessary to take-off nor do they have fuel wasted on taxiing (your average airliner at JFK wastes a TON of fuel just getting from the terminal to say Runway 4 Right). Not sure about any special taxes, but any aircraft can fly directly across manhattan and into queens without even making contact with Air Traffic Control for free, provided they stay below 1300 feet and maintain Visual Flight Rules (type of navigation that almost all Helicopters do anyway). 295 seems like a reasonable price for a profit.
I'd never use the service, but I'm curious where it's able to pick up and drop customers off. It's not like a helicopter can just land on your building or touchdown in front of the terminal entrance. I'm going to hazard a guess that it only makes sense if you're also flying in a private jet.
Curious about that as well - although flight paths are pretty strict and you would know how to avoid them, I am not too sure as to how excited people running JFK would be with tons of private helicopters coming over. I would imagine the helicopters might have their own flight path into the airport or something, otherwise wouldn't make much sense.
Imagine the uber map with helicopters in the air.
I've flown on helicopters into big/international airports before (not US but I assume it's similar). Airports have a section where helicopters are stationed at the periphery, and the flight paths don't interfere with other aircraft of course. To get to your terminal you just hop in a car (I guess the helicopter service company organizes this) and they drive you to the section of the airport for private travel (recreational, business). From there you can easily access whatever you need in the airport.
I was thinking about the commute to and from the pick-up and dropoff points since door to door travel wouldn't be an option. What's your opinion, all things considered, on how much faster/convenient it was?
Taxi is 60-70 bucks.
I prefer walking.
This will never go mass market, at least with current helicopters (but maybe with planes). Fuel is too expensive.
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