Remember when we told you there was an Uber for helicopters called Gotham Helicopter? That was cool, right?
Well now there will literally be an Uber ... for helicopters. As in, Uber Technologies Inc., the actual company, will start actually launching its customers into flight.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Uber is teaming up with Airbus Group SE to provide on-demand helicopter service.
"It's a pilot project, we'll see where it goes - but it's pretty exciting," said Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders.
While Enders's lips were sealed about the financial details of the agreement, he did reveal that the project will launch at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah this week.
This is another notch in Uber's expansion of its transportation services from boring old cars to on-demand boats in Turkey, even rickshaws in India.
Will Uber take over the globe? Mayor de Blasio seemed to think so last summer, but no, we're kidding. We don't think Uber will stop at the globe. We don't think they'll rest until they've conquered the solar system.
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Uber tested UberChopper service between Manhattan and the Hamptons in 2013, and also provided on-demand helicopter service for the Cannes Film Festival in May, and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in June.
The prices of those UberChopper rides? It's hard to say. They vacillated from several hundred to several thousand.
Regardless, both Airbus and Uber will be offering on-demand helicopter rights during Sundance, and they have partnered with a Utah-based operator of H125 helicopters to do so.
If you're at Sundance and you've got some cash to blow, you should know you won't be picked up for your helicopter ride in a helicopter. You'll be picked up in a car and then driven to your helicopter ride.
Airbus's motive in partnering with Uber? Well, its demand from traditional clients has been hurt by low oil prices, so Airbus is expanding its search for helicopter customers.
If the service is successful with Sundance, we just might see a take off in helicopter services. Especially since companies like Gotham Helicopter and Blade will bring you around the city via chopper for a couple hundred.
Will helicopters be the new thing? Only time will tell. Personally, we'd prefer if Uber would start up an on-demand jet ski service on the East River, but we'll settle for helicopters for now.
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