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Gotham Air: Manhattan to JFK in 6 minutes for $99
- tptacek 12y agoThis can't possibly be real.
- lanstein 12y agoBased on the prices here: http://www.heliny.com/ http://www.heliny.com/ it's plausible, since only the first ride is $99. Travel time is correct too: http://www.newyorkhelicopter.com/airport-transfers/ http://www.newyorkhelicopter.com/airport-transfers/
- fishnchips 12y agoWhat a wonderful and completely non-scalable solution to the question of public transportation.
- lnanek2 12y agoWhat makes you think it won't scale? Seems to mesh well with all the PR about drones all over the place lately. I could easily see the helicopters being replaced with remote piloted drone taxis within a decade.
- robbrown451 12y agoIt's noisy and expensive. Helicopters should have to pay a noise pollution tax, in my opinion.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- raverbashing 12y ago> I could easily see the helicopters being replaced with remote piloted drone taxis within a decade. You have no idea what you're talking about It's one thing for Amazon to put your stuff in there, another, for a drone carrying people fly next to an airport
- frenchman_in_ny 12y ago"Promotion rate flights are for first time flyers only and limted to a single use. Other terms and conditions may apply." So what's the standard rate?
- prawn 12y ago$199-219 depending on airport and time of day.
- pyrophane 12y agoSome more details: http://nypost.com/2015/01/20/why-take-a-taxi-to-the-airport-when-you-can-take-a-helicopter/ http://nypost.com/2015/01/20/why-take-a-taxi-to-the-airport-... > Gotham’s going rates are higher than the initial $99. After the introductory flight, prices will range from $199 to $219, depending on the time of day and the airport, Hayes said, adding that the choppers will depart from three Gotham Air terminals in Manhattan.
- Animats 12y agoFootnote on ad: "Promotion rate flights are for first time flyers only and limted to a single use. Other terms and conditions may apply." HeliNY, for which they are a reseller, charges $925 for that trip as a charter. Aircraft capacity is 5 (maybe 6). So the regular price, assuming they make you wait for a full helicopter, is probably about $200.
- mikeash 12y agoSeems like blatant false advertising to have "$99" in big text and nothing but an asterisk to indicate that this is a rate you're allowed to have exactly once ever.
- nerfhammer 12y agogiven that they're a reseller there probably is no aircraft with their livery as pictured either
- 67726e 12y agoConsidering I've driven past buses covered in bumper to bumper ads for McDonalds, the local hospital system, and a pawnshop this morning, I think it's safe to say getting your name and logo on a vehicle isn't an insurmountable task. I would consider starting a helicopter-as-a-service to be the greater challenge.
- joshvm 12y agoThey almost certainly don't own the helicopters, that would be an extremely large cost for them (up front) including maintenance, staffing, storage and so on. Virtually no businesses actually own their own birds. Their USP is that instead of going to the owners and chartering the chopper yourself, they'll match you up with other commuters and you pay your 5th or 6th of the cost.
- dragonwriter 12y ago> Seems like blatant false advertising to have "$99" in big text and nothing but an asterisk to indicate that this is a rate you're allowed to have exactly once ever. All kinds of services advertise one-time introductory rates that way.
- ilzmastr 12y agoSlightly cheaper than cab fare+tip from Manhattan to Newark, but ~40 mins faster. Then again you still have to get through financial district to the helipad... Still not as good as having a private helicopter. I hear NYC to PHL is 30 mins by heli.
- guan 12y agoUberX from Manhattan to Newark is $65 flat fare, no tip required.
- mathattack 12y agoThe issue isn't price, it's time saved.
- jeffreyrogers 12y agoAnd coolness.
- qq66 12y ago> I hear NYC to PHL is 30 mins by heli. Doubtful, unless you're in some kind of military helicopter. NYC to PHL is close to 100 miles, no helicopters go 200 miles per hour.
- schuman 12y agoIt's actually about 40 or 45 minutes. Shame on OP for mistaking that for 30.
- spiritplumber 12y agoUnfortunately it requires me to get on something that is kept aloft by an extremely complex collection of moving parts that twist, wibble and vibrate. And doesn't glide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9c4I3nRIFA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9c4I3nRIFA (Explained by the same guy who explains the differential in that old instructional video)
- frenchman_in_ny 12y ago"And doesn't glide" -- as opposed to, say, autorotation? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2a9H8Xw8Mo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2a9H8Xw8Mo
- spiritplumber 12y agoI've seen people do autorotation landings (only for training, fortunately) and... I'll take something with wings, thanks :)
- PhantomGremlin 12y agoAs the very video you link to explains, a helicopter does have wings. They just look a lot different than in a "fixed wing" design. :)
- aqme28 12y agoI'm curious, is it more or less dangerous than driving a car over the same distance?
- ghaff 12y agoIt would seem that a helicopter is significantly more dangerous: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/06/are_helicopters_safer_than_cars.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/20... That would be my intuition as well--especially for that route as traffic will frequently make driving pretty slow (and, indeed, that's sort of the point of the service).
- jasonjei 12y agoAre there any security risks? Aside from air safety risks? I just wonder if body scanning/x-ray/metal detector is required for this sort of thing.
- frenchman_in_ny 12y agoGenerally no; you'll go through the usual security check prior to boarding a flight at the airport, however.
- drewmate 12y agoSo how does this work? Does the helicopter pick you up from your office building? Or do you have to go to their central terminal?
- krschultz 12y agoThere are at least 3 heliports in the city. There is one no the East River at 34th ST, and one on the Hudson at 30th st. There is also one in battery park that I think is more of a tourist flight spot. I live near the 34th street one, and I am amazed by the number of people that use them during rush hour on weekdays. There might be 50-100 people that commute by helicopter into the city each day at that heliport. That's certainly more than I would have expected.
- epc 12y agoFor Battery Park you're thinking of the Wall St heliport (JRB). Mostly Wall Street types but there's also several tourist flights. The noise from this heliport on the Brooklyn side can be unbelievable in the summer. The 30th St heliport is due to close...at some point due to its location in Hudson River Park but I suspect there will be some sort of negotiated solution to relocate it.
- mathattack 12y agoThis is an unfortunate sign that Manhattan is turning into Sao Paulo or Hong Kong.
- ghaff 12y agoNothing new about it. Way back when, Pan Am offered "free" helicopter service into the city for first class passengers. (Originally to the heliport on the roof of the Pan Am building until that was banned following an accident.) JFK is a ways out. Newark is much less of a big deal because there's good train service between that airport and Penn Station.
- nerfhammer 12y agoHelicopter shuttle services have been running on and off in NY since the 1950's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Airways http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Airways http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Helicopter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Helicopter
- nhayden 12y ago>You never need to share the car strangers Typo here, just FYI
- kuny 12y agoalso, copyright year 2014 and "limted to a single use" wants an i
- droob 12y agoThe big weird variable time buffer required at the airport would seem to wipe out the time you gain, right? Or, at least, what's an extra half hour when you're on the hook for two hours of security and waiting, followed by a couple-hour flight, followed by another hour of transit on the arrival side?
- silencio 12y agoI expect someone who'd use this kind of service on a regular basis would have TSA Precheck/CLEAR and priority boarding/!coach seats, possibly reducing a significant amount of waiting before the flight. This isn't just about reducing the time spent in traffic either, nor does it say anything about the possibility of something similar for travel needs on the other end. And well, flights tend to be unavoidable or the fastest way possible to go somewhere, so...
- josu 12y agoFrom the nostromo's comment: >The biggest selling point was not only the short commute, but that you went through security at the helipad very quickly, rather than waiting at the airport.
- dogma1138 12y agosince the helipad is usually inside the airports flight area you are already per-cleared at the embarkation point so as long as the helicopter makes no stops on the way you won't have to do anything at the airport. This is very similar to how private charters operate at commercial airports they have their own security checks which are usually much much more lax than the commercial passengers. Some airport shuttles (in some countries) also allow you to do a security precheck and to turn in your luggage prior to even reaching the airport.
- nostromo 12y agoA service like this existed until a few years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Helicopter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Helicopter It took just a few minutes to get to EWR or JFK and cost $159. The biggest selling point was not only the short commute, but that you went through security at the helipad very quickly, rather than waiting at the airport. I believe they were a victim of the financial crisis and died around that time.
- dannylandau 12y agoMaybe by facilitating the service via an app will make the difference here. A much bigger audience and probably a lot easier to book.
- nerfhammer 12y agoPossibly by having the service on-demand they have fewer liabilities so you don't go out of business if demand drops off, which is what did in US Helicopter. Helicopters as a Service. On the other hand if they're too successful maybe the company they're chartering from could decide to offer service themselves and cut them out
- woah 12y agoA helicopter company is going to have a hard time hiring iOS developers and managing a software development project, not to mention the most important part: the brand.
- adevine 12y agoThey're not the carrier. From the bottom of the page: Gotham Air is not a direct air carrier but rather provides technology and information services enabling consumers to obtain aircraft charter and shared aircraft charter services from FAA certified and DOT registered air carriers who exercise operational control over all flights .
- nerfhammer 12y ago
- stealthlogic 12y agoNo with 50% less crashing.
- OoTheNigerian 12y agoThe Gotham Air app will revolutionize the way you travel. Our iOS and Android based technology will allow you to enjoy crowd sourced helicopter flights when you want. Call your friends or meet some new ones on board. A beautiful new Bell 407 helicopter is just minutes away! Is it really hard to describe services in plain English? BTW, it's a good idea. Lagos used to have one before.
- sgustard 12y agoI find the phrase "crowd sourced helicopter flights" strangely terrifying.
- akyu 12y ago>fleet of Teslas These guys are on top of their buzz game
- tmalsburg2 12y agoWhat is this fleet of Teslas doing on days with good weather? Either they'll have too much capacity when the weather is good or too little when the weather is bad.
- italophil 12y agoI hope this ends better than New York Airways, which offered similar services in '60-'70 and went bankrupt after two deadly accidents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Airways http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Airways
- camelliot 12y agoWhy don't we start a speedboat service from SF to SFO? Also, get picked up and dropped off by a Tesla of course. The value proposition comes from the shock factor.
- slantedview 12y agoA fleet of Teslas? Not that this isn't a cool idea, but it's still a joke, right?
- lisper 12y agoSomething else to consider: baggage capacity. Helicopters operate close to their weight limits when fully loaded. You may fit, but your bags may not.
- johnloeber 12y agoLooks awesome. Taking an Uber or Public Transit from Manhattan to JFK has usually been a pretty severe time-cost, while Ubers and Taxis are also not too cheap. This service might actually be worth it, from an economic point of view -- it probably cuts between 30 and 60 minutes commute time depending on the time of the day, and it also cuts another 30-45 minutes of security time. Depending on how much you value your time, this could be worth it. Doesn't seem too scalable though, which is unfortunate. Given there are many people who value their time quite highly in Manhattan, I expect seats on the helicopter(s) will actually be sold out most of time. (One more aspect to consider in the utility-calculation: what's the probability the helicopter crashes?)
- jrockway 12y agoWeird. I looked at prices for helicopter charter recently, and it's usually $1000 to JFK/LGA/EWR from downtown.
- goeric 12y agoSurf Air for helicopters!
- dogma1138 12y agoFor 99$ this is something that doesn't even require you to be some hedge fund brat to use. Not sure what the current cab prices are these days, but i remember paying about i think 80$ for a cab from JFK to central Manhattan. You can get it a bit cheaper if you book a car service instead of grabbing a cab from the airport but it's still not sums that would break anyone's pocket. A taxi from central London to Heathrow can easily cost 90 quid unless it's a booked minicab which then drops it to 40-60 quid, you can take the heathrow express but thats also 40 quid both ways + additional fare to get to paddington. I would love to use this service both for the speed and the experience (unlike the scenic traffic jam you get otherwise) just to get a sky high tour of NYC... Too bad it's never gonna scale, there probably will be huge limits on the amount of luggage you can take (which will make it either very expensive or completely unusable for international travelers) and the costs are going to go trough the roof quick enough.
- ghaff 12y agoOT but I've never really understood the Heathrow Express economics--and I've asked Londoners and they've never been able to give a good explanation either. I take the Piccadilly line in and I've never understood the justification for taking the Express. Maybe if I were staying right around Paddington but not if I'm going to have to take the tube or a taxi anyway.
- yuliyp 12y agoThe exchange rate from your money to Other People's Money is very significant
- ghaff 12y agoI'm sure that's true. Though even when I'm spending Other People's Money I tend to avoid gratuitously burning it when I legitimately don't care. As I was discussing with someone this past week, I'm probably something of an exception--or at least have somewhat different priorities about things I care about.
- mason55 12y ago
- spitfire 12y agoTypo: You never need to share the car strangers and we can....
- crazygringo 12y ago> from Manhattan to JFK and Newark Liberty Airports cut the travel time from 2-hours to 6 minutes for about the same price as many black cars A helicopter flight is cool, sure... ...but "2 hours" is complete nonsense. Even if traffic is terrible, you can always take LIRR+AirTrain from Penn Station to JFK for less than $15, and it's basically guaranteed to take 35 min or less, straight to your desired terminal. Heck, I took it this morning, and there was a new train every 10 min. And most people are going to find it quicker to get to Penn St than to get to the heliport in the first place, so it doesn't even have an advantage there...
- yahelc 12y ago35 minutes is a stretch. Starting at Penn Station, Google Maps has 52m as the minimum and 1h11m as the max. And that's from Penn Station. Add the time it takes to get to Penn Station from where you're going, it can easily be between 1h30m and 2h. I did this trip yesterday, and from where I started in Soho until the airport, it was 1h45m.
- avree 12y ago35 minutes or less? I've never managed to make the trek in less than an hour, regardless of what means of transit I employ.
- colinbartlett 12y agoI fly regularly out of JFK and live in Manhattan. I always take a cab out of convenience and it almost always takes less than an hour. But it's consitently the worst hour of my trip. I dread that leg more than the flight, the airport, anything. This is absolutely a service I would use, provided it's $100 per person max. If it turns out to be $300 after the intro period then forget about it.
- nness 12y agoPerhaps unrelated, but the gothamair.com is blocked by McAfee's proxy (corporate environments, sigh). Medium risk of phishing is the justification given...
- coin 12y agoQuestionable website, clicking on "FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS" on an iPad (Safari iOS 8.1.2) does nothing. Hopefully the helicopters are better.
- mtbcoder 12y agoI noticed that as well. I also received a blank page until a few refreshes eventually loaded the page. Oddly, all the HTML of the site is loaded via Javascript.
- shittyanalogy 12y agoY'all are falling for it, this isn't an existing service, it's a hype page. The flight cost is just filler made to excite you, it will most certainly be much more, none of the links work, there is no app, no faq, no privacy policy. This isn't tech related, this isn't even a product announcement it's just straight hype advertising and y'all are falling for it. Links like this hitting the top of the front page and spurring 150 comments indicate quite comically to me the sunset of what was once an insightful, interesting technology news site.
- elwell 12y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/classic https://news.ycombinator.com/classic
- jessaustin 12y agoI was imagining a zipline...
- wyager 12y agoI would absolutely pay for this. It's only about $20-30 more than a taxi (after tip) or about $40 more than an Uber. I'd pay that much for an hour or two less travel time.
- carlaldrich 12y agoLIRR to JFK from Penn takes about 20 minutes and only costs a few dollars!
- cauterized 12y agoToo bad externalities aren't included in the price. There's already far too much painfully loud helicopter traffic over Brooklyn as it is.
- tn13 12y agoDoes it still require me to go through the security theater ?
- j_lev 12y agoI assume they are still profitable up to $100/barrel oil.
- catusia 12y agoI like to pay attention to how much attention they pay to small details, like their copy. Under "Our Promise to You": "You never need to share the car [?] strangers [...]" Then, on the footnote to that same section: " Ground travel guarantee available for tavel to JFK & EWR for travel booked [...]"
- mandeepj 12y agogothamair is contradicting itself. On top they are saying "Call your friends or meet some new ones on board." At the Tesla section, they are saying - "You never need to share the car strangers". Although there is a typo here (missing 'with')
- corin_ 12y agoTheir claim is that you will share the helicopter rides, however in bad weather you will get a private car without needing to share. Because cars are cheap enough that they can afford to do that (compared to helicopters).
- allendoerfer 12y agoAs mentioned in the comments, the actual price will be ~200$ with a rented helicopter, which can take up to 6 passenger. My first thoughts as a layman are, if the service takes off [0] it could be made really feasible if they find a way to rent, land and operate a monster like the Mil Mi-26 [1], which takes 60 civilians or 90 troops. People would use the service just to fly to the airport for fun. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQZi7tmWhR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQZi7tmWhR4 [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26
- slayed0 12y agoI think getting stuffed into the back of a windowless Russian military helicopter may conflict with some of the appeal that the service is trying to market.
- sandworm 12y agoI'm no stickler for grammar, but if you are running a website for a service claiming to pride itself on luxury and detail, then... "You never need to share the car strangers and we can pick you up and drop you off at your front door. [double asterisk] " And the [double asterisk] means you need to book the flight 48 hours in advance if you want the car as backup. That would preclude any crowd-sourced flights via their app. Lol. So much for chopper-uber.
- johnchristopher 12y agoThere's a missing `with` at the bottom of the last paragraph of the landing page: > You never need to share the car strangers and we can pick you up and drop you off at your front door.
- TheMask01 12y agoShoot,it's ~$60 for an UberX according to http://uberestimate.com/cost/1/JFK/Manhattan/ http://uberestimate.com/cost/1/JFK/Manhattan/ .....I'd much rather get to tha choppa
- robk 12y agoThis makes sense for business travellers if you need to get to JFK for a flight at say 6pm on a weekday. Traffic then is easily 1.5 hours and the variability is too high to comfortably rely on it. If it means an extra hour or two of meetings for that consistency in getting to the airport, seems easily worth the cost of a limo to the airport. As a side note these things are like venture debt - they seem to only work in boom times. Every time there is a tightening in the financial markets these businesses tend to fold, as in US Helicopter, NY Airways, et al. Bubblicious!
- joopxiv 12y agoI don't really understand why you would build an app for this. Apps are great when you need to do something while you're on the move. Booking a helicopter 48 hours in advance doesn't really fall into that category.
- snippy 12y agoThere's an interesting anecdote from Finland. A company called Copterline flew between Finland's Helsinki and Estonia's Tallinn for many years with two Sikorsky S-76 helicopters. The trip was over the ocean and took 18 minutes. Sadly one of their copters crashed into the ocean in 2005, killing all 14 aboard. The reason was purely technical. The hydraulic steering system got stuck due to debris that had came loose from an inner coating. The copter was impossible to steer and started spinning around its axis, and spun 13 times until hitting the ocean. It was the beginning of the end for the company. Later in 2008 they started again with two AgustaWestland AW139 copters. I was aboard once, and it was a fantastic experience. However, it boggled my mind how much even a modern helicopter vibrates. It's a wonder to me how copters can withstand the constant violent vibration. Apparently they can, except in rare cases. In 2004 Copterline transported 75 000 passengers. If all flights were full (12 passengers and 2 pilots) it means about 17 flights a day, every single day. Copterline went out of business in December 2008 because it was unprofitable. It's sad, because flying on a helicopter is a cool experience mortals like me usually can't experience without commercial flights.
- somberi 12y agoI think 3 hours is an exaggeration. From LGA to Columbia University (The north end of Upper West side of Manhattan) by M60 bus route takes 45 minutes (as of Google maps at 6am today) and the worst I have had is 90 minutes. And the cost of bus ride is a little over 2$. The distance is approximately 8 miles (13Kms).
- dr_ 12y agoThe bigger issue is where does it actually take off from, and how long would it take you to get to the departure site?
- ehosca 12y agowhat a time to be alive. i wonder if i can customize my ride by having an Arnold look-alike yell "get in the choppa" as i'm boarding it?
- leroy_masochist 12y agoI once ran into a squad-mate from The Basic School in a bar in Sneads Ferry NC. He had since become a CH-53 pilot, and that night he was pretty deep into the beers. At one point he made a comment that I remember verbatim because it stuck with me: "Think of a helicopter as 100,000 moving parts competing with each other to be the first one to break." You guys can take the helo, I'll be fine leaving extra early for the airport and possibly sitting in traffic :)
- RayVR 12y agoI frequently fly out of JFK. I have lived in three very different areas of Manhattan. Never has it taken me more than 1.5 hours to get to JFK. I would say the mean time is more like 45 minutes. Yellow cabs are fixed rate $55 + tolls. I can get an uber for around the same price, often less depending on time of day. While the idea of having a helicopter fly you out to your airport is great, the actuality of it is likely pretty much on par with car travel. The biggest value I see is in transportation to the Hamptons or Nantucket. There's no security transfer/terminal concerns, the drive out there on the weekend is a nightmare, and you potentially save time.
- manacit 12y agoUber has done helicopter rides from the city to the Hamptons: http://blog.uber.com/nyc/uberchopper-hamptons-shore-2014 http://blog.uber.com/nyc/uberchopper-hamptons-shore-2014 I didn't realize it until now, but they've done Uber Chopper in quite a few places: http://blog.uber.com/tag/uberchopper/ http://blog.uber.com/tag/uberchopper/