By Raza Elahi
By 2026, flying taxis will whiz through the skies of Delhi-NCR, Mumbai-Pune and other urban centres like Bengaluru.
The air taxi will cover in 7 minutes the same distance that would take 60-90 minutes in a car in New Delhi or Mumbai and its fare would be approximately 1.5 times that of an Uber/Ola car, Nikhil Goel, chief commercial officer, Archer Aviation, said this at World Leaders Forum in New Delhi on Saurday.
The California-based company is all set to revolutionise urban mobility with safe, sustainable, and low-noise air taxis. Archer’s 4-passenger air taxi is capable of travelling at speeds of up to 150 mph and is 100 times quieter than a helicopter cruising at altitude. The company is in final stages of getting approvals for its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, dubbed 'Midnight', from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States.
Besides the US, UAE and India are the countries where Archer plans to start the air taxi and it has recently struck a deal with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office, which gives it, over the time, hundreds of millions of dollars to build out the technology in the country.
Nikhil Goel (in pic left), former Uber Elevate co-founder and recognised as a Forbes 30 Under 30 awardee in Consumer Technology, has worked at NASA, Microsoft, Google, McKinsey, Uber and now Archer.
'Our aim is to keep the air taxi service very affordable and the lower labour costs (for pilots and maintenance) in India will assist in achieving this goal,' Goel said.
Archer is in talks with Indian airport operators and DGCA as well as with InterGlobe Enterprises, which is the owner of India's largest airline, IndiGo for setting up of vertiports inside airports, necessary clearance, finalising routes and establishing other infrastructures etc.
Its manufacturing contract deals are in place with Stellantis, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and others and
has plans for an air taxi network in Los Angeles ahead of some major sporting events: the World Cup in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027, and the Summer Olympics in 2028. The network includes vertiports at Los Angeles International Airport, University of Southern California, Orange County, Hollywood Burbank and Santa Monica etc.
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Below are Some Pics of World Leaders Forum
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