For a long time now, there were talks about a helicopter ride service being launched in Bangalore, not as part of a tourist attraction but more as a means to ease the traffic woes on the road.
If all goes well, the heli taxi rides will take off as early as next week, even though the exact date has not been announced yet.
Who will operate these?
Thumby Aviation is the company that will be starting off on the helicopter rides and at the moment, they apparently have permissions for two Bell 407 helicopters with a seating capacity of six passengers that will fly commuters from the Kempegowda International Airport in Bangalore to HAL Airport and Phase I in Electronic City.
There are already plans of expansion and maybe also weekend travel options towards Chikmagalur or Wayanad.
The good news
A commute time that takes 2 hours by road will be over in just 15 minutes!
Timings for the service
Image Credit: condenast
For the time being, it will operate in two shifts to take care of peak rush hour traffic.
6:30 am to 9:30 am: There will be three round trips between KIA and Electronic City
3:00 pm to 6:15 pm: There will be three round trips between KIA and HAL Airport (these are supposed to start from the 1st of March).
Ticket cost
Okay, so while this ride will significantly reduce your travel time, keep in mind that it will very significantly increase your travel cost. Each ticket is priced at INR 4130 including GST and includes the drive from the terminal of Bangalore airport to the helipad.
Passengers can carry a weight of up to 15 kg and any extra baggage requires to be shipped on ground at whatever rates are applicable.
How to book tickets
You can check out the Heli Taxii mobile app on your Android or iOS smartphones. Some work is still going on and it is said to be fully operational from the 23rd of February.
At the moment the ‘Fly Now’ option is not working, but you can instead choose the ‘Fly Later’ option and feed in your pick up and drop details. You will also have to add information about the luggage and the number of seats you require, before making a payment.
Well, I am planning to visit the city soon, but I think going by the pricing, I will still take the mode that’s most common, and experience the Bangalore traffic experience first-hand.
What about you? Are you planning to try it out at all?
Read Also: Night Trekking And Spelunking At Antargange Cave Near Bangalore
