Bengaluru Air Taxi: Now You Can Avoid Traffic With Helicopter Ride

Now you can take a helicopter ride as an air taxi if you get stuck in the Bengaluru traffic, which can fetch you to your destination within 12 minutes only.

The IT hub of India, Bengaluru, is already among the most crowded cities in the world. But now Bengaluru’s skyline is about to change drastically.

The urban air mobility startup Blade has announced that it would begin offering helicopter flights between Bangalore International Airport and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) airport. 

The service will run five days a week, Monday through Friday. The 10th of October is the scheduled launch date for the service. 

The company claims that the intra-city service will enable commuters to save time because the aircraft will only take 12 minutes as opposed to the two hours required for the road commute. 

Due to its proximity to major areas of the city like Indiranagar and Koramangala as well as IT parks, HAL has been picked as the pickup point. The first fee to book the tickets is ₹ 3,250 (without taxes), much like any other airline ticket. 

Comparatively, a cab ride from the international airport to HAL airport will cost you about Rs 1,300 and take close to two hours, or even longer depending on the volume of traffic.

The morning flight from Bengaluru Airport to HAL will depart at 9 am, while the evening flight back will depart at 4.15 pm.

“Our ability to democratize urban air mobility is the key to our success. With today’s launch, we can provide a convenient entry point even though helicopter services are a high-end offering”, according to BLADE India managing director Amit Dutta.

Once the services are launched, the company has stated that more routes would be added. Future locations could be Whitefield and Electronic City.