Air Taxi Startup Wants To Fly People … To The Airport

• California-based Archer Aviation unveiled plans for an air taxi service in New York City.
• The air taxi rides would be booked as add-ons to regular flight tickets.
• Passengers would embark on a 5 to 15-minute ride from various locations in Manhattan to one of the neighboring airports.

Archer Aviation, a California-based electric airplane startup, has unveiled its plan for a potential air taxi service connecting various locations in New York City to three of the neighboring airports.

Using its four-passenger Midnight electric plane that can take off and land vertically, Archer envisions a future where people who need to catch a private or commercial flight from JFK, LaGuardia or Newark would take an air taxi instead of driving to the airport.

This way, the time it takes to get to the airport would be slashed from over an hour, if the passenger were to use a regular taxi, to less than 15 minutes. That said, prospective customers won’t be able to just hail an air taxi wherever they are.

The plan is to use existing facilities scattered around New York City as starting points for the airports. These include the East 34th Street Heliport, Downtown Skyport and West 30th Street Heliport. Travelers would book the air taxi rides as add-ons to their commercial flights and then set off from one of the aforementioned locations to “vertiports” located at JFK, LaGuardia or Newark, as well as other regional airports.

Archer’s Midnight electric VTOL aircraft is powered by six batteries and has a total of 12 rotors. It can fly between 20 and 50 miles on a full charge and can seat four passengers and the pilot.

Photo by: Archer Aviation

Archer Aviation’s proposed air taxi routes in NYC

It’s quite an interesting idea, although it’s worth noting that this is still very much a plan without an official kickoff date. Archer Aviation has convinced United Airlines, New York’s Port Authority and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) to play along, and it also received the final airworthiness criteria from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), making it one of only two air taxi companies in the United States to hold that certification along with Joby Aviation.

However, as noted by Engadget, Archer still doesn’t have its FAA Type certification that’s required for any operations. Furthermore, the startup has yet to provide details like the number of potential flights per day and operating hours of its New York City routes. Pricing is also an unknown.

Previously, Archer Aviation proposed similar air taxi plans for San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago.