Fancy Flight of
Blade’s luxury air service will ease travel between Mumbai and Pune
Aquick drive to the tarmac from the soothingly designed waiting lounge at Mahalakshmi, a sunshine yellow wrist band that doubles up as a Blade boarding pass and a 40-minute flight that offers stunning glimpses of the rapidly changing terrain from Mumbai’s sandy coastline to the densely forested Western Ghats take you to Pune, 180 km away. Travelling between Maharashtra’s two key cities was never swifter or more comfortable, thanks to Blade, a US-based urban air mobility service that launched operations in India last month. The experience puts equal emphasis on convenience, luxury and personalisation—the waiting lounges at the helipads are designed to envelop guests in a soothing ambience, away from the noise of the city, with calming music, juice, cookies and sandwiches before it’s time to board the six-seater helicopter. Currently, Blade flies a sleek black and gold Airbus HC 130 and a Bell 407 with four passengers ensconced in comfortable leather seats behind the pilot and two sitting beside him. State-of-the-art Bose headphones cut off the noise from the rotors but allow passengers to chat with each other or the pilot. Blade India connects Mumbai, Pune and Shirdi in keeping with the needs of the business traveller and the large number of people visiting the temple town of Shirdi but plans to start services on different routes across the country to cater to leisure travellers and offer better connectivity between crowded cities. With the growing traffic menace, it’s definitely the way of the future.
Price `18,990 onwards per seat Visit www.flyblade.in