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Uber Air Will Be Coming To Melbourne Next Year

Uber Air Will Be Coming To Melbourne Next Year

It'll only cost $100 to fly from the CBD to Melbourne airport.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

After much deliberation, Uber has announced it will introduce the world's first Air service outside America to Melbourne.

The company has been debating whether to install it in Sydney or Melbourne and it seems the southern, 'cooler' city has won out.

It means that next year, people with a bit of coin will be able to fly around the city in special Uber helipods.

According to Australian Business Traveller, it'll cost someone $100 to get from a landing pad in the city to the airport - which isn't that expensive, especially for a ride in a cool, futuristic helicopter.

Susan Anderson, Uber's general manager for Australia, New Zealand, and North Asia, said in a statement: "Australian governments have adopted a forward-looking approach to ridesharing and future transport technology.

"This, coupled with Melbourne's unique demographic and geospatial factors, and culture of innovation and technology, makes Melbourne the perfect third launch city for Uber Air. We will see other Australian cities following soon after."

Uber

Each passenger will get 18 kilograms of luggage and anything larger will have to be sent to your intended destination ahead of the flight.

At the moment, the test phase of the program only allows flights from the airport to the city, which should take around 10 minutes. Uber reckons the next most popular destination will be a Melbourne to Geelong ride, which could take as little as 20 minutes.

Welcome to the future people.

Uber Elevate chief Eric Allison said: "As major cities grow, the heavy reliance on private car ownership will not be sustainable.

Uber

"Uber Air holds enormous potential to help reduce road congestion.

"For example, the 19 kilometre journey from the CBD to Melbourne airport can take anywhere from 25 minutes to around an hour by car in peak hour but with Uber Air this will take around 10 minutes."

Melbourne is the first city outside the US to get the trial program, with Dallas and Los Angeles also included in the process.

It's hoped the testing will get underway next year and if everything goes according to plan, will be commercially available from 2023.

It'll be interesting to see how the whole system will work considering there could be dozens of little helicopters taking up our skies in the near future. No doubt in our complaining society there will be tons of people getting annoyed by all the noise.

Featured Image Credit: Uber

Topics: Uber, Technology, Australia