Uber makes JFK airport helicopter taxis available to all users

Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc is taking to the air in New York City where users with a little cash to spare will soon be able to book helicopter flights to John F. Kennedy International airport through their apps.

The company announced its Uber Copter offer on Thursday, saying flights to and from Lower Manhattan will become available to all Uber users on Oct. 3. Uber made the feature available to its premium members in June.

The roughly eight-minute flight will cost between $200 and $225 per person and include ground transportation on either side of the trip. Passengers can bring along a small suitcase and have to watch a safety video before takeoff, similar to that on an airplane.

The flights are operated by HeliFlite Shares, a licensed company, and Uber’s prices roughly compare to those of competitors offering helicopter rides to JFK.

For now, Uber rides shuttling passengers to the heliport in Manhattan are only available from the southern tip of the island.

Uber says the service is intended to reduce travel times, but when Reuters tried Copter on Wednesday, a trip from its Midtown office to the airport took 70 minutes, including a subway ride downtown and two Uber rides to and from the heliport. That’s about the same time it would have taken by regular taxi in moderate traffic.

An Uber spokeswoman on Thursday said that trip was not realistic as part of the commercial rollout, however, as the Copter option is only shown to customers located in the geofenced Lower Manhattan area.

(AP) In this file photo, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane rolls toward takeoff before a test flight at Boeing Field in Seattle. Reported Wednesday, Oct 2, a Boeing engineer filed an internal complaint alleging that company managers rejected a backup system that might have alerted pilots to problems linked to two deadly crashes involving the 737 Max jet, according to published reports.