With increasing road traffic, businesses are looking skywards to help passengers reach their destinations quickly & at a reasonable cost.
Air Taxi Services In India Could Soon Zip Through Thousands Of Kilometres In Minutes
The government is all set to boost intercity domestic transport by launching flying taxis in India. The move comes days after IndiGo Airlines revealed its plans to introduce air taxi services in India by 2026. Travellers can zip from Delhi to Gurugram in just 7 minutes if this comes to fruition. It takes around an hour to cover this 40 km stretch by road. This all-electric taxi service is a joint venture between IndiGo and US-based Archer Aviation.
As for the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s plans to introduce flying taxi services in India. The project involves introducing 48 heliports on 6 routes, including Delhi to Faridabad, Delhi to Meerut Airport, and Delhi to Rohini Heliport. Of the 48 heliports, 18 will be in Delhi and the remaining in surrounding areas like Gurugram, Ghaziabad, etc.
This huge move will help business professionals travel to Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, and Gurugram daily. It’s a great way to avoid peak traffic in Delhi NCR, allowing people to reach these areas in just 6-10 minutes.
But this ambitious project needs proper funding and skilled execution. A similar air taxi service launched in Singapore in 2022 is now on hold indefinitely as the German company Volocopter could not secure funding from local partners. It is difficult to get started without sponsors to fund the technology involved.
Air taxi service operators in India need new infrastructure construction, regulatory planning, route planning assistance, and a developed digital network.
