Uber Air Travel trial in Melbourne

[BaneOfKnoll]

So I heard of this the other day and Australia doesn't get much news at all in this space. 

Anyway, there has been some info  about Uber Trialing airport shuttling with flying vehicles in Melbourne. Other than just being interesting in the tech space it should be great as a method for relieving congestion which is apparently a huge issue in Melbourne

Quote

"Melbourne's congestion levels are on par with New York," she said.

 

Quote

 

A 10-minute flight from a Melbourne CBD rooftop to the airport 19 kilometres away for less than $90 could be a reality sooner than the long-awaited train line.

 

The plan so far is to have pickup areas called "Sky-Ports" and a trip from the CBD to the airport is going to be under $90 (AUD so ~$62.15 USD). 

 

There is also talk of pursuing these trials in Dallas and Los Angeles. 

 

 

The West article

 

ABC article

Edited June 13, 2019 by BaneOfKnoll
Formatting

[Bananasplit_00]

That seems like a reasonable price tbh, was expecting much more

[Guest]

$90 is too much i’d rather take the train 

[Fnige]

Air travel... Now instead of congesting the roads, we congest the air

[xtroria]

$90 for Melbourne CBD to Airport?

 

I'd take that in a heartbeat. It already takes $45-50 + the traffic going to the airport

[GoldenLag]

Why on earth would i pick this over a train ride?

 

Price is pretty decent for what it is. 

[TVwazhere]

5 hours ago, GoldenLag said:

Why on earth would i pick this over a train ride?

Speed. That's basically it.

[TechyBen]

8 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

That seems like a reasonable price tbh, was expecting much more

For something that does not exist.

I've got 5000 tickets to the moon for $5 each.

[random_australian]

8 hours ago, floofer said:

$90 is too much i’d rather take the train 

 

6 hours ago, GoldenLag said:

Why on earth would i pick this over a train ride?

 

Price is pretty decent for what it is. 

Because in Melbourne a train is not an option unfortunately. You either have to take a coach/bus, taxi/ride share or drive. There are plans for a Rail Link but construction isn't scheduled to start until 2022 at best and it will be a decade before it's finished. So even if Uber is running on "Elon Time" they will probably beat the train. 

[veli2501]

An Uber (car) costs me $28 from an inner city suburb to the airport and only takes about 20-30min.  At the same time, if I book at the right time I can fly to Brisbane from Melbourne to less than $90.  IDK, it's a cool idea but for someone like myself is somewhat redundant.

[mr moose]

21 hours ago, floofer said:

$90 is too much i’d rather take the train 

 

18 hours ago, GoldenLag said:

Why on earth would i pick this over a train ride?

 

Price is pretty decent for what it is. 

The train will come after they finish the metro tunnel.  

 

Fortunately I don't often got to the airport, but when II do it regularity costs me about $40-60 once you pay for petrol, parking, tolls etc.   Also it's not always a nice drive.    I can see uber will just be running helicopters from some of the helicopter decks in the CBD out to the airport.   I can't see it being feasible to design and build custom aircraft for the job. 

 

Also I question if the comparison to new york is really a thing or just a marketing/investor pitch.

[Dredgy]

21 hours ago, floofer said:

$90 is too much i’d rather take the train 

There's no train. Melbourne Airport is (notoriously) poorly connected to the city, with only the congested highway. The bus is about $30, but isn't direct to your hotel, where Taxi/Uber is between $50-70+. Limousine service I usually use is also about $90. So Melborune is actually a prime candidate for this kind of thing. Stick the skyports on main hotels - Sofitel, Crown etc, and that's an insanely convenient commute that's cheaper than a standard limo.

 

Dallas is a weird city to trial it, i guess the metro area is well spread out, but I've never had a problem with getting from DFW to downtown Dallas or Fort Worth. Sao Paulo would have been the other city where I would think it would be super useful.

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

 

The train will come after they finish the metro tunnel.  

 

Fortunately I don't often got to the airport, but when II do it regularity costs me about $40-60 once you pay for petrol, parking, tolls etc.   Also it's not always a nice drive.    I can see uber will just be running helicopters from some of the helicopter decks in the CBD out to the airport.   I can't see it being feasible to design and build custom aircraft for the job. 

 

Also I question if the comparison to new york is really a thing or just a marketing/investor pitch.

So to you ( and everyone else who replied ) I mixed up Sydney and Melbourne. I honestly haven’t been to Melbourne in so long, so that’s why. I’ll probably take the bus or taxi then. 

[sof006]

I'd say it's a reasonable price, considering what the service is actually doing for you. It's rather specialised however so it would have to be a case of "I am desperate to get from A to B, get me there fast".

[mr moose]

1 hour ago, sof006 said:

I'd say it's a reasonable price, considering what the service is actually doing for you. It's rather specialised however so it would have to be a case of "I am desperate to get from A to B, get me there fast".

I can see there being quite the demand for it actually.  People who just don't want to think about the trip, leave from the office etc.  $90 is absolutely nothing to a lot of travelers in Australia, especially those traveling from the CBD.   

[Brooksie359]

23 hours ago, Dredgy said:

There's no train. Melbourne Airport is (notoriously) poorly connected to the city, with only the congested highway. The bus is about $30, but isn't direct to your hotel, where Taxi/Uber is between $50-70+. Limousine service I usually use is also about $90. So Melborune is actually a prime candidate for this kind of thing. Stick the skyports on main hotels - Sofitel, Crown etc, and that's an insanely convenient commute that's cheaper than a standard limo.

 

Dallas is a weird city to trial it, i guess the metro area is well spread out, but I've never had a problem with getting from DFW to downtown Dallas or Fort Worth. Sao Paulo would have been the other city where I would think it would be super useful.

 

 

Sounds alot like LA to me. Damn nightmare to get to the airport. Actually just a nightmare to get anywhere in that area. 

[BaneOfKnoll]

On 6/13/2019 at 5:59 PM, floofer said:

$90 is too much i’d rather take the train 

If you read the article, or even just  the quote I included, you would see that it is hoping to be implemented before the train line.

NVM, just read your response already. 

[Dredgy]

8 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

Sounds alot like LA to me. Damn nightmare to get to the airport. Actually just a nightmare to get anywhere in that area. 

Yeah they’re trialling it in LA too and lots of people will pay a premium to get away from LAX quickly

[TempestCatto]

I hope Uber realizes that not just anyone can fly. It's why we don't have flying cars, and never will. Anyone can get a drivers license, but it takes a lot to get a pilots license. What level would they make you have? I would assume commercial, though I suppose you could get away with a private license with instrument rating. Either way, I don't know how many people with licenses will want to use their time off to fly more people around. I mean, I guess you get to keep up with your hours and make a few bucks doing it. But then how many hours must you have under your belt in order to fly for them? They're gonna have to figure out where to land, I would guess within the main grounds where other GA aircraft go, but you'd still need to get to the other side of the airport and to the front of the terminal (so a bus maybe) because people still need to go through security. Idk, seems like a good idea on paper.

[mr moose]

8 hours ago, TempestCatto said:

I hope Uber realizes that not just anyone can fly. It's why we don't have flying cars, and never will. Anyone can get a drivers license, but it takes a lot to get a pilots license. What level would they make you have? I would assume commercial, though I suppose you could get away with a private license with instrument rating. Either way, I don't know how many people with licenses will want to use their time off to fly more people around. I mean, I guess you get to keep up with your hours and make a few bucks doing it. But then how many hours must you have under your belt in order to fly for them? They're gonna have to figure out where to land, I would guess within the main grounds where other GA aircraft go, but you'd still need to get to the other side of the airport and to the front of the terminal (so a bus maybe) because people still need to go through security. Idk, seems like a good idea on paper.

 

I'm pretty sure if they have done a feasibility study then they have worked all that out already, it's just matter of trialing to see if it works in the real world.

 

they know you can't fly an aircraft on a drivers license, they know where all the heliports are, they know what it costs to land at the airport, they even know what a pilot costs per half day/day/hour.  I am fairly certain they are not intending on running it like they do the normal uber service.