Airbus partners with Uber to provide users with helicopters

By Staff Writer

Jan 18, 2016 05:28 AM EST

Aerospace giant Airbus announced Sunday that it has partnered with car hailing app company Uber in a visionary bid to allow people to hail helicopters and other forms of transportation.

According to CNBC, the newly-formed Silicon Valley-based initiative will have a $150 million budget to "identify and invest in the most visionary entrepreneurs in the global aerospace ecosystem." This partnership lets Airbus offer on-demand transportation service to Uber users. The aerospace company will use its H125 and H130 helicopters for this service.

Market Watch wrote that Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders said, "It's a pilot project, we'll see where it goes - but it's pretty exciting." He hopes that the price of ordering a helicopter would decrease later on.

There are no official announcements on how much a ride might cost, but considering that it is a helicopter ride, one can only expect that it will be pricey.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the initiative will launch this week at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The company ran a test UberChopper service that flew from Manhattan to Hamptons in 2013.

The US tech firm has also offered helicopter rides during the Cannes Film Festival, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, and other special events. An Uber spokesperson said the service made it easier for attendees of the event to navigate through the event.

Meanwhile, this is not the only occasion that Uber incorporated other transportation in its services. It has offered on-demand boats in Turkey and rickshaws in India. Meanwhile, Aibus CEO Enders said before that his company's helicopter sales have dropped in 2015, and this partnership with Uber can help them bounce back.

Enders is trying to make sure that his company remains innovative as other giant tech companies Elon Musk, Alphabet, and Facebook are moving into the aerospace atmosphere building rockets and high-altitude aircrafts that beams internet. 

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