# MISC | Air Taxis



## hkskyline

*Envisioning a Day When the Skies Will Teem With Air Taxis *
By MATTHEW L. WALD
19 June 2005
The New York Times

DANVILLE, Va. -- If the nation's 429 commercial airports are too crowded, there is an alternative, aviation visionaries say: using a new generation of microjets, with two engines and just five or six seats, as air taxis or charters to connect the 5,400 airports scattered around the country that now have no scheduled service at all.

It may be a Buck Rogers fantasy, or it may be the early phase of a new transportation network of point-to-point travel between little-known cities like this one.

Using new or improved technology, including satellites and on-board computers, to handle air traffic at places with no control towers and to provide better navigation support than airliners receive at big airports, the new mode of transportation could be safe and reliable, say advocates for the new generation of technologies, known as the Small Aircraft Transportation System. Following the inevitable tradition of aviation, it is known by its acronym, SATS.

"The only thing small about SATS is the size of the aircraft," said Marion C. Blakey, who heads the Federal Aviation Administration. "The system itself holds enormous potential for the way we fly as a nation."

Ms. Blakey, appearing in this town in southwest Virginia, about 75 minutes by car from the Raleigh-Durham airport in North Carolina, described Danville as a place "where aviation does indeed need to go."

The aviation agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, half a dozen universities and a variety of private companies showed off possibilities at a three-day technology demonstration here this month. One of the more audacious was a robot air traffic controller, essentially a computer box on the ground that receives requests for permission to land from planes a few miles away. The computer system, devised by NASA, gives the planes a number in the queue.

A related system receives a broadcast from each plane giving its identity, altitude, location and direction; that information is received by all the planes in the area, giving each cockpit a radarlike display to show the situation.

The system, said to be able to manage 12 to 15 takeoffs and landings an hour, even in bad visibility, was demonstrated here with four aircraft. In contrast, planes that now approach Danville and similar airports in poor visibility receive permission from a distant air traffic control center equipped with radar that cannot view low altitudes. To keep the current system safe, controllers limit operations to four takeoffs or landings an hour.

At the moment, many small airports are lucky to see four takeoffs or landings an hour, especially when the weather is poor. But new planes are coming that could change that.

Eclipse Aviation, of Albuquerque, is testing its first three planes. If it wins F.A.A. approval, as it expects to do by March, it will produce more than 100 aircraft a month.

Its plane, the Eclipse 500, is about the size of a small twin-engine propeller plane, powered by two Pratt & Whitney jet engines so small that it would take 60 of them to lift a Boeing 737, a Pratt & Whitney executive said. They are plenty big enough for the Eclipse, however, which cruises at more than 400 miles per hour and, unlike piston-powered planes, can fly high over most weather. It will sell for about $1.4 million.

Eclipse has signed a deal with another new company, the DayJet Corporation, of Delray Beach, Fla., to sell at least 239 planes. DayJet will use them to carry passengers for $1 to $3 per mile per passenger, said Edward E. Iacobucci, the president and chief executive.

Mr. Iacobucci said a coach-class ticket on a regional airline cost about $1 a mile, but those planes often flew between airports that were far from where the passenger lived or wanted to go. DayJet's routes would be from "small to small," he said, from places like Savannah, Ga., to Columbus, Ga., or Lexington, Ky., to Danville.

"This is an unserved market," he said. "An unserved market is something aviation hasn't seen in a zillion years."

Cessna, which already produces corporate jets, and Adam Aircraft, of Englewood, Colo., which makes a single-engine propeller plane, are also introducing planes in the category, called "very light jets." They are expected to take to the air by the thousands in coming years, some as corporate aircraft, others privately owned. Many will be built to be flown by a single pilot.

There are substantial hurdles, including public perception, to establishing a transportation network using the new jets.

Phil Boyer, the president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said, "Outside our world, small planes have a pretty negative connotation."

More than 500 people die in a typical year in general aviation crashes. Only a handful of those die in air taxis, but sometimes the scheduled airline industry goes an entire year without a fatality.

Phil Michel, the vice president for marketing at Cessna, told the group, "If the success or failure of SATS depends on changing the mind-set of the entire American population, we don't have a chance."


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## New York Yankee

that's funny, than you'll see yellow planes fly over new york in a couple of years!


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## Cheese Mmmmmmmmmmmm

Does this mean I can fly over Lake Michigan and avoid Chicago? :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:


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## HKT

Sounds good, but does this create more air pollution?..


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## Cheese Mmmmmmmmmmmm

^ More? Hmm I guess it would have to be weighed against the cars this mode of transport would eliminate.


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## hkskyline

*Can A New Air Taxi Service Truly Fly?* 
7 September 2009
Forbes
Volume 184 Issue 4

Next to lighting a match, one of the surest ways to burn a bundle has been investing in on-demand air travel via small planes. In the last decade a mix of startup airlines and aircraft manufacturers have torched some $1.5 billion hoping to ferry last-minute business customers among tiny U.S. airports.

Onto this perilous runway roll Richard Humphrey, 42, and Curtis Brunjes, 47, founders of Kavoo, an air taxi service launched in April and headquartered in Danbury, Conn. (Kavoo is a twist on Cavu, airline slang for "ceiling and visibility unlimited.") Humphrey, an amateur pilot, had sold his company, which made custom-designed plastic bottles for soft drinks sold at amusement parks and ball games. Brunjes flew C-141s for the Air Force and spent 22 years in 747s and the like for United Airlines (he still logs 60 hours a month for United). The two met through a common friend. "We had a similar vision about small planes being the next wave," says Humphrey.

Their passengers will fly in single-engine Cirrus SR-22s with four seats and no bathrooms. Customers pay by the plane rather than by the seat; if Kavoo can find flyers for the return flight, the price per leg drops. Assuming no such luck, a 300-mile trip from White Plains, N.Y. to Buffalo would cost $1,500, or $5 a mile. If all three seats are filled, the trip is $500 per person, one way. Chartering a roomier, five-seat Cessna Citation I jet from a competitor would cost perhaps $4,125 (or $1,375 for each of the same three passengers). A last-minute coach seat on JetBlue from nearby John F. Kennedy Airport would be only $140 to $180. Still, the custom flights are a good investment for busy executives, given the lines at airports and the shrunken flight schedules to smaller cities.

A majority of Kavoo's 2,400 competitors (double the 1999 number) are tiny companies with a single plane. Only Satsair in Greenville, S.C., with 20 planes, has any kind of regional presence, let alone a national brand. The most spectacular failure: math whiz Edward Iacobucci, founder of server-software giant Citrix Systems, who planned to darken the skies with hundreds of six-seat "very light jets" designed by Eclipse Aviation. After burning through about $240 million, his company, DayJet, went Chapter 7 in November; Eclipse followed a few months later. Another air taxi service, called Pogo Jet, brainchild of former American Airlines chief Robert Crandall and People Express founder Donald Burr, shut down in April after its light-jet supplier, Adam Aircraft Industries, went bankrupt and funding dried up. "We had ten years of chronic irrational exuberance about people flying where they want when they want," says Richard Aboulafia, vice president of Teal Group, an aviation consultancy.

Staked with $1 million in savings and no debt, Humphrey and Brunjes are taking a more sober approach. Rather than assembling a huge fleet and worrying about profits later, they are letting others buy the planes and split the revenue. Neat, except for the logistics. Owners agree to give 48 hours' notice if they want to use their planes; if the planes are already booked, owners can hop into whatever is available in Kavoo's fleet--or be stuck driving. (If the owners need the plane for a week, they have to schedule weeks in advance.) That system works fine on low volume, but what happens when demand ramps up? "Owners typically want the revenue," says Brunjes. Cirrus likes the scheme because it helps sell planes to more buyers looking to offset their operating costs, says Mark Bennett, Cirrus' sales director for the New England region.

There's plenty of turbulence ahead, like getting Kavoo's maddeningly complex proprietary booking and accounting software (a $250,000 investment) to work. Kavoo's six planes together average one flight per day along the northeastern corridor, including stops in Gaithersburg, Md. and Portland, Me.

Kavoo aims to generate average revenue of $2.50 a mile per plane. About a fifth of that goes to the owner of the Cirrus. If the $550,000 plane is kept fairly busy (1,200 hours a year), it might bring in $120,000 a year in owner's rent.

Out of the remaining $2 a mile, Kavoo assumes it will spend 25 to 30 cents on pilots, 50 cents on fuel and 30 cents for other operating expenses, including part of the owner's insurance, maintenance and landing fees. That leaves about 90 cents a mile for Kavoo. On the same 1,200-hour assumption, Kavoo would be hauling in an annual $216,000 per plane of gross profit, out of which it would pay its own sales and overhead costs. The founders aspire to have 20 Cirruses within two years and move rapidly into the black. "We are not intending to sell our products below cost, ever," says Brunjes. Good luck with that.


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## sophiaa11

the idea sounds good but it will be too costly for four or 5 pessengers


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## hkskyline

April 4, 2019
*Pilot-less air taxi takes off in Vienna demonstration flight*
_Excerpt_

VIENNA (Reuters) - As carmakers push ahead with self-driving vehicles, an Austrian aerospace company and its Chinese partner showed off their pilot-less “flying taxi” for the first time in Europe on Thursday.

The drone’s 16 propellers hummed loudly as it rose above the pitch at Vienna’s Generali Arena, home to soccer club Austria Wien. The slim plane, which weighs 340 kg (750 pounds), circled in the air briefly and came down within a few minutes.

The EHang 216, which can seat two passengers, has been tested comprehensively and is essentially ready for mass production, said Derrick Xiong, co-founder of Chinese drone maker EHang.

Joining the race for new autonomous aircraft services that do not require runways, EHang entered a strategic partnership with Austria’s FACC, owned by Chinese aerospace group AVIC, last year, aiming to offer short-haul services for passengers, industrial equipment and urgent medical deliveries.

The drone can fly at up to 150 km per hour (90 mph) for almost half an hour, FACC Chief Executive Officer Robert Machtlinger said. “It can travel between 50 and 70 kilometers depending on the payload.”

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-in-vienna-demonstration-flight-idUSKCN1RG1MR


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## hkskyline

June 12, 2019
*Uber picks Melbourne as test site for flying taxi service*
_Excerpt_

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Uber Technologies said it will use Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, as the first international test site for the group’s planned flying taxi service.

The U.S. ride sharing firm had previously chosen Dubai as the first test site outside the United States for its UberAIR service but reopened its request for proposals last month after launch delays in the Middle Eastern city.

Uber said on Tuesday it will begin test flights of the pilotless aircraft in Melbourne and U.S. cities Dallas and Los Angles in 2020 before commercial operations begin in 2023.

“Australian governments have adopted a forward-looking approach to ridesharing and future transport technology,” Susan Anderson, Regional General Manager for Uber in Australia, New Zealand and North Asia, said in an emailed statement.

“This, coupled with Melbourne’s unique demographic and geospatial factors, and culture of innovation and technology, makes Melbourne the perfect third launch city for UberAir.”

The test flights will transport passengers from one of seven Westfield shopping centers in Melbourne to the city’s main international airport. The 19km journey from the central business district to the airport is expected to take 10 minutes by air, compared with the 25 minutes it usually takes by car.

The electric, on-demand air taxis can be ordered by customers through smartphone apps in the same way Uber’s road-based taxi alternatives are hailed.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...st-site-for-flying-taxi-service-idUSKCN1TD01T


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## hkskyline

* Flying taxis could poach passengers from planes, Avolon says *
_Excerpt_ 

PARIS, June 11 (Reuters) - Airbus and Boeing watch out - one of the world's largest aircraft owners says passenger planes could see their wings clipped by the rapid spread of flying taxi startups.

Commercial air travel already faces competition from high-speed trains in parts of the world. But the head of Irish aircraft leasing firm Avolon said competition would shift skywards as it invested up to $2 billion in aerial shuttles.

Avolon is among the launch customers for up to 1,000 electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVOTL) aircraft being developed by Britain's Vertical Aerospace, which plans to go public through a merger with a blank-check firm.

German air shuttle startup Lilium said in March it would float on the U.S. stock market via a similar process.

The deals reflect growing interest in battery-powered aircraft that can take off and land vertically, offering a new way for travellers to beat traffic and hop between cities.

More : Flying taxis could poach passengers from planes, Avolon says


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## nazrey

*Malaysia Airports, Volocopter, Skyports to explore air taxi deployment in Malaysia*
By Alfred Chua21 July 2021
















Homepage


Volocopter is here to change air transport and the aviation industry with the its all-electric air taxi. Discover it now!




www.volocopter.com






> Malaysia Airports has signed a memorandum of understanding with urban air mobility (UAM) company Volocopter, as well as with vertiport firm Skyports, to explore the potential deployment of electric air taxi services in Malaysia.
> 
> Under the partnership, the three companies will first conduct a feasibility study “examining suitable vertiport solutions to enable the safe take-off and landing of passenger electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, considering factors such as demand, customer flow, and how to integrate UAM operations”.
> 
> *Malaysia Airports hopes to start electric air taxi services at Subang’s Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah airport*, which is south of Kuala Lumpur. It states that the collaboration will come under the auspices of a five-year airport regeneration project, which hopes to turn the airport into a business aviation and aerospace hub.
> 
> Apart from Subang, Malaysia Airports hopes to roll out electric air taxi services across Malaysia.
> 
> Skyports will contribute its expertise in vertiport development and operation, while Volocopter will “assess the deployment of eVTOL aircraft and operations of urban air taxi services from vertiports” at the airport.
> 
> Says Volocopter chief commercial officer Christian Bauer: “The Southeast Asian market is one of the largest and most interesting ones for UAM due to its geographical layout and dense population. Our feasibility study will help give us insights on demand, customer expectations, and airport integration, which we can apply to other markets in the region.”
> Volocopter is already working on electric air taxi services in neighbouring Singapore, having flown a manned test flight across the city-state’s central business district in 2019. Skyports, meanwhile, has vertiport infrastructure projects in development in Singapore and other parts of Asia, as well as in Europe and North America.
> 
> Malaysia Airports group chief Dato’ Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh says the airport operator’s role will be to “provide end to end, mid to high value capabilities and solutions that are anchored by top tier operators”.
> 
> He adds: “Air taxi technology and revolution is the next big thing that we want to see happen in Malaysian aviation. With Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah airport offering a synergistic ecosystem within the aviation and aerospace sectors, it is timely for us to explore this new service as it complements other key developments of the regeneration initiative.”











Malaysia Airports, Volocopter, Skyports to explore air taxi deployment in Malaysia


Malaysia Airports has signed a memorandum of understanding with urban air mobility (UAM) company Volocopter and vertiport firm Skyports to explore the potential deployment of electric air taxi services in Malaysia.




www.flightglobal.com


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## hkskyline

*South Korea tests system for controlling air taxis*
_Excerpt_ 

SEOUL, Nov 11 (Reuters) - South Korea demonstrated a system for controlling urban air mobility vehicles (UAM) on Thursday, which it hopes will serve as taxis between major airports and downtown Seoul as soon as 2025, cutting travel time by two-thirds.

More : South Korea tests system for controlling air taxis


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