In late March, BLADE announced a cool expansion to their helicopter service in NYC. With the introduction of “BLADE Continuous,” they began offering continuous helicopter flights between Manhattan and New York JFK Airport every weekday from 7AM until 7PM.
The new five minute service costs $195 one-way per person, which they said was approximately the same cost as an SUV service doing the same route during rush hour.
How has BLADE Continuous been doing?
First of all, BLADE shares some interesting statistics in this Bloomberg story regarding users on this new service, which point towards this being quite a success:
- Over 75% of first-time customers have never flown in a helicopter before
- 22% of customers have come back the same month
- The average age of customers is 38
- 55% of customers are men
- 95% of customers book through the mobile app
- BLADE breaks even when they sell 2-3 seats (they have six seats total)
BLADE expanding service to LaGuardia and Newark
Similar to their JFK Continuous service, BLADE is expanding their service to both LaGuardia and Newark. For RPDR fans, Kennedy Davenport would be proud to see this (Newark, LaGuardia… Kennedy!).
Both airports will see continuous service from 7AM until 7PM on weekdays. As far as the locations for these services go:
- The JFK service operates from West 30th
- The EWR service operates from East 34th
- The LGA service operates from Wall Street
These new flights aren’t yet on sale, but should be on sale soon.
BLADE wants to lower fares even more in the future
At this point BLADE says that their fares are comparable to Uber Black SUVs, and they also argue that their helicopters have lower emissions than SUVs (presumably they’re suggesting that six SUVs to the airport have higher emissions than one helicopter for the five minute ride).
However, BLADE hopes to lower fares even more in the future. BLADE’s founder hopes to lower transfers to the $70-90 range within three to five years, which would of course be awesome.
Bottom line
While $195 is still a lot of money, it sure is much more reasonable than what it previously cost to get a helicopter. For those who value their time and who are near the Manhattan heliports, the time savings could more than justify the additional cost over the next best option.
What do you make of BLADE’s expansion? Have you taken their new service?
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