http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Helicopter
It took just a few minutes to get to EWR or JFK and cost $159. The biggest selling point was not only the short commute, but that you went through security at the helipad very quickly, rather than waiting at the airport.
I believe they were a victim of the financial crisis and died around that time.
New York Airways had one notable accident: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/may-16-1977-hel...
On the other hand if they're too successful maybe the company they're chartering from could decide to offer service themselves and cut them out
HeliNY, for which they are a reseller, charges $925 for that trip as a charter. Aircraft capacity is 5 (maybe 6). So the regular price, assuming they make you wait for a full helicopter, is probably about $200.
All kinds of services advertise one-time introductory rates that way.
Another issue is if they are flying to JFK the idea is you are taking a flight obviously out of JFK. So given that helis are small and weight sensitive I wonder if the app collects that info and/or what the baggage restrictions are.
Now it really is for the 1%. At $99 I can imagine a family wanting to take one to reduce stress and complexities.
How long until drones can take us? :)
Why? Because they have to meet the same safety requirements as existing aircraft, but carry enough electronics to fly the aircraft as autonomously and as safely as a human pilot, which I think is actually a substantial hurdle to overcome.
> Gotham’s going rates are higher than the initial $99. After the introductory flight, prices will range from $199 to $219, depending on the time of day and the airport, Hayes said, adding that the choppers will depart from three Gotham Air terminals in Manhattan.
A helicopter flight is cool, sure...
...but "2 hours" is complete nonsense. Even if traffic is terrible, you can always take LIRR+AirTrain from Penn Station to JFK for less than $15, and it's basically guaranteed to take 35 min or less, straight to your desired terminal. Heck, I took it this morning, and there was a new train every 10 min.
And most people are going to find it quicker to get to Penn St than to get to the heliport in the first place, so it doesn't even have an advantage there...
And that's from Penn Station. Add the time it takes to get to Penn Station from where you're going, it can easily be between 1h30m and 2h. I did this trip yesterday, and from where I started in Soho until the airport, it was 1h45m.
This is absolutely a service I would use, provided it's $100 per person max. If it turns out to be $300 after the intro period then forget about it.
Sadly one of their copters crashed into the ocean in 2005, killing all 14 aboard. The reason was purely technical. The hydraulic steering system got stuck due to debris that had came loose from an inner coating. The copter was impossible to steer and started spinning around its axis, and spun 13 times until hitting the ocean.
It was the beginning of the end for the company. Later in 2008 they started again with two AgustaWestland AW139 copters. I was aboard once, and it was a fantastic experience. However, it boggled my mind how much even a modern helicopter vibrates. It's a wonder to me how copters can withstand the constant violent vibration. Apparently they can, except in rare cases.
In 2004 Copterline transported 75 000 passengers. If all flights were full (12 passengers and 2 pilots) it means about 17 flights a day, every single day.
Copterline went out of business in December 2008 because it was unprofitable. It's sad, because flying on a helicopter is a cool experience mortals like me usually can't experience without commercial flights.
You have no idea what you're talking about
It's one thing for Amazon to put your stuff in there, another, for a drone carrying people fly next to an airport
Is it really hard to describe services in plain English?
BTW, it's a good idea. Lagos used to have one before.
These guys are on top of their buzz game
A taxi from central London to Heathrow can easily cost 90 quid unless it's a booked minicab which then drops it to 40-60 quid, you can take the heathrow express but thats also 40 quid both ways + additional fare to get to paddington.
I would love to use this service both for the speed and the experience (unlike the scenic traffic jam you get otherwise) just to get a sky high tour of NYC...
Too bad it's never gonna scale, there probably will be huge limits on the amount of luggage you can take (which will make it either very expensive or completely unusable for international travelers) and the costs are going to go trough the roof quick enough.
You can get to LGA via public transit for $2.50 (subway+bus). For JFK there's an extra $5.00 for the airtrain.
Technologists are the new "hedge fund brats". I agree it's not a huge price-tag given how awesome it sounds compared to the similarly-priced alternatives, but let's be careful when we talk about what might "break anyone's pocket."
Getting to JFK in public transport might work for a domestic flight but i won't want to go trough NY's public transport with 2 full suit cases.
There is the connect which is about 60-70% of the rate of the Express but it tends not to run late at night, and every time there are any works done on the line it takes a back seat to the express.
The problem with the Piccadilly line is that it takes ages, it doesn't run late (service stops around 11pm and doesn't renew till about 5.30ish iirc) and it's the most delayed line of the tube system, especially the parts towards Heathrow. So many people don't take it, most people that do are young people that take it during the middle of the day since it's also when most of the low cost airliners operate.
I think that most people in London at this point are just used to paying the premium of living in London even tho at this point i don't really see a point for that. The salaries are double at least than pretty much anywhere else in the UK, but the cost of living is also at least as high.
$500+ a week (double that for the return) is a phenomenal amount of money to spend on commuting. If you value your time at $50 an hour and someone else is paying, then sure it may be worth it, but this won't scale simply because its impractically expensive for most people.
But I agree, $99 for a helicopter ride over New York is probably a lot cheaper than the experience companies.
If i would go to NY for fun i would consider this as part of the tour, if i go there on business as i usually do it would be quite hard for me to expense it not because of the price but because i would have to put a helicopter ride on the expense report which might raise more than a few eyebrows at work...
This service might actually be worth it, from an economic point of view -- it probably cuts between 30 and 60 minutes commute time depending on the time of the day, and it also cuts another 30-45 minutes of security time. Depending on how much you value your time, this could be worth it. Doesn't seem too scalable though, which is unfortunate.
Given there are many people who value their time quite highly in Manhattan, I expect seats on the helicopter(s) will actually be sold out most of time.
(One more aspect to consider in the utility-calculation: what's the probability the helicopter crashes?)
Yellow cabs are fixed rate $55 + tolls. I can get an uber for around the same price, often less depending on time of day.
While the idea of having a helicopter fly you out to your airport is great, the actuality of it is likely pretty much on par with car travel.
The biggest value I see is in transportation to the Hamptons or Nantucket. There's no security transfer/terminal concerns, the drive out there on the weekend is a nightmare, and you potentially save time.
I didn't realize it until now, but they've done Uber Chopper in quite a few places: http://blog.uber.com/tag/uberchopper/
My first thoughts as a layman are, if the service takes off [0] it could be made really feasible if they find a way to rent, land and operate a monster like the Mil Mi-26 [1], which takes 60 civilians or 90 troops.
People would use the service just to fly to the airport for fun.
"You never need to share the car strangers and we can pick you up and drop you off at your front door. [double asterisk] "
And the [double asterisk] means you need to book the flight 48 hours in advance if you want the car as backup. That would preclude any crowd-sourced flights via their app. Lol. So much for chopper-uber.
So what's the standard rate?
Under "Our Promise to You": "You never need to share the car [?] strangers [...]"
Then, on the footnote to that same section: " Ground travel guarantee available for tavel to JFK & EWR for travel booked [...]"
This is very similar to how private charters operate at commercial airports they have their own security checks which are usually much much more lax than the commercial passengers.
Some airport shuttles (in some countries) also allow you to do a security precheck and to turn in your luggage prior to even reaching the airport.
>The biggest selling point was not only the short commute, but that you went through security at the helipad very quickly, rather than waiting at the airport.
As a side note these things are like venture debt - they seem to only work in boom times. Every time there is a tightening in the financial markets these businesses tend to fold, as in US Helicopter, NY Airways, et al. Bubblicious!
You guys can take the helo, I'll be fine leaving extra early for the airport and possibly sitting in traffic :)
Still not as good as having a private helicopter. I hear NYC to PHL is 30 mins by heli.
> You never need to share the car strangers and we can pick you up and drop you off at your front door.
I live near the 34th street one, and I am amazed by the number of people that use them during rush hour on weekdays. There might be 50-100 people that commute by helicopter into the city each day at that heliport. That's certainly more than I would have expected.
The 30th St heliport is due to close...at some point due to its location in Hudson River Park but I suspect there will be some sort of negotiated solution to relocate it.
You never need to share the car strangers and we can....
On top they are saying "Call your friends or meet some new ones on board."
At the Tesla section, they are saying - "You never need to share the car strangers". Although there is a typo here (missing 'with')
Typo here, just FYI
it's plausible, since only the first ride is $99. Travel time is correct too:
JFK is a ways out. Newark is much less of a big deal because there's good train service between that airport and Penn Station.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9c4I3nRIFA (Explained by the same guy who explains the differential in that old instructional video)
But helicopter crashes are frequently survivable. Here's some anecdotal evidence. Long ago I knew an ex South Vietnamese Army guy who crashed two helicopters in a single day during the war. Also my old boss, Annapolis grad, once mentioned crashing a helicopter somewhere in Texas. Even knowing that, I still flew with him in his Beech and in his Aeronca Air Knocker. The younger we are, the more we believe in our own invulnerability and good luck.
Having said all that, I share your trepidation. Fortunately, today's commercial jets are orders of magnitude safer (as measured by actual crash statistics) than helicopters and general aviation fixed wing aircraft.
That would be my intuition as well--especially for that route as traffic will frequently make driving pretty slow (and, indeed, that's sort of the point of the service).
