INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Manhattan.The news of the Uber Air debut was first reported by the New York Times, and confirmed by Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi,
who tweeted the article with the comment: "Point to point multimodal journey planning and booking = no stress transport to and from JFK."The
flights -- which last about eight minutes -- would begin July 9 with "dynamic pricing" expected to be around $200 to $225, with ground
transportation included in the city and airport, Uber said.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 New York service will be offered to members of Uber's loyalty programs.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.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent
staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
