Heli-taxi service: Fly from Bangalore airport to software hub in 15 minutes

Govt expects Bengaluru's heli-taxi service to be a model for other cities in India

Bengaluru is set to launch a helicopter taxi service from its international airport to Electronics City, helping passengers save hours in commute and beat the city’s bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The service, to begin in three months with one helicopter by Thumby Aviation, will eventually expand to connect Whitefield, the HAL airport, and some of the 90-odd highrise buildings that have rooftop helipads, based on the demand from people. 

A 55-km road journey from the airport to Electronics City, home to several technology firms such as Infosys, Wipro and HP, takes over two hours by cab, costing around Rs 2,500, while the chopper journey would reduce it to 15 minutes.  

Officials from Bangalore International Airport (BIAL), the airport operator, and Karnataka Industries Minister R V Deshpande expect the commute costs on a chopper for an individual would match air conditioned cab rides.

BIAL would partner other chopper operators, based on initial success, while the government would explore setting up a heliport in Electronics City that would allow passengers to check in from the software hub. Around 60,000 passengers fly from Bengaluru every day and if 100 passengers use choppers to commute to the airport, the service could be economically viable.

Bengaluru, India’s tech hub with a population of around 10 million, has over 6.93 million vehicles, or two vehicles for every three people, according to the state transport department.

The government expects Bengaluru’s heli-taxi service to be a model for other cities in India, to promote the use of choppers to commute over high traffic areas, to reach airports.

“We hope that Bengaluru will lead the way for other cities to adopt such services,” said Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Friday. 

“In São Paulo, Brazil, a city similar in size to Bengaluru, there are 300 helicopters operating as heli-taxis. Travel will be seamless and there will be no need to fight traffic.”

He added that Sao Paulo had more choppers than the entire country. According to the Rotor Wing Society of India, the country has around 284 helicopters in the civilian market, which has not expanded in the last decade.

To address this, Sinha said the government would kick off next week the second round of Udaan, the country’s regional connectivity scheme, by pushing the adoption of helicopters to connect small towns and “support affordable flying through helicopters”.

The Centre’s open sky policy encourages using choppers in cities to fly below 5,000 feet without a flightplan. 

Flightplan is a document that needs to be submitted to the local airport authority, indicating the route of an aircraft being planned to fly.

Sinha said he expected both SpiceJet and IndiGo to participate in the second round of Udaan, based on the orders they have placed for smaller aircraft such as ATR and Bombardier, to tap the growing opportunity to connect smaller routes.

Heli-taxis take wings

• Udaan 2 to encourage affordable helicopter services in India
• Bengaluru has 6.93 million vehicles; journey by car from airport to Electronics City of 50 km takes 2-3 hours
• Heli-taxi services to reduce travel time to 15 minutes
• Bengaluru also has over 90 multi-storeyed buildings with helipads; helicopters can land in Whitefield and HAL
• Centre plans heliport in Electronics City, if there are sufficient passengers to take heli-taxi service
• Aim is to make it as affordable as an AC taxi ride between two places in the city
• Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha says that the heli-taxi service should be made affordable