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Bengaluru: HeliTaxi prices to rise even before its first take-off, thanks to daily flight testing at HAL

  • In three months time, Bengaluru will become India’s first city to have a helicopter shuttle service
  • However, the innovative idea may hit its first hurdle in the form a daily flight testing at HAL Airport
  • This will push up the rates originally planned for the services
HeliTaxi prices to rise even before its first take off thanks to daily flight testing at HAL

In three months time, Bengaluru will become India’s first city to have a helicopter shuttle service after Ministry of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha announced its launch between the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) and Electronics City.

However, the innovative idea may hit its first hurdle in the form a daily flight testing at HAL Airport. This will push up the rates originally planned for the services.

While the HeliTaxi service will begin between Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) and Electronics City and subsequently to Whitefield and HAL Airport, the daily flight testing at HAL Airport would mean that the choppers will have to take a longer route.

They will have to fly eastward to reach Electronics City to avoid the testing activity.

This will result in a rise in the fares as revealed by Group Captain KNG Nair, chairman and managing director, Thumby Aviation Private Ltd, which is offering the shuttle services, reported the Bangalore Mirror.

The fares for a one-way trip from KIA to Electronics City are expected to be on the lines of a luxury taxi fare that is about Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000. And this will go up if the choppers go through the daily flight testing since a HeliTaxi will have to take longer routes to reach the destination.

The government and other stakeholders involved in HeliTaxi services also have to deal with the test flying of military aircraft, reports Bangalore Mirror. At present, there are two helipads at the HAL Airport premises, which apart from being used by military choppers, are also used for operating the helicopters of VIPs and politicians and hence they may find it difficult to provide slots for HeliTaxis.

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