Bengaluru to have India's first heli-taxi service

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.

Though the exact date is yet to be announced, Thumby Aviation, the company operating the helicopter taxis, told CNT that permissions are in place and two Bell 407 helicopters are ready to fly passengers from Bangalore’s Kempegowda International Airport to Electronic City, Phase 1 and to HAL Airport. This means that a journey that usually takes two hours by road will now take only 15 minutes.

A helipad will be set up in Electronic City to serve as the pick-up and drop point for passengers. The service, which was announced on Friday last week, is expected to begin in three months. Jayant Sinha, the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, spoke at the launch event, expressing hope that the new service will lead the way for other cities to adopt the same.

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.

While the schedule for the flights is flexible, the heli-taxi will operate in two shifts, for now. The flights are timed to peak business hours.

There will be an average of three round-trips between Bangalore’s Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) and Electronic City from 6.30am to 9.30am and another three round-trips from 3.00pm to 6.15pm. (Flights between Bangalore KIA and HAL Airport will start on 1 March.)

The four-blade, single-engine Bell 407 chopper to be used as a heli-taxi can seat up to six people.

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

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.

How to book the Bangalore heli taxi

App - Heli-Taxi mobile app (Android /iOS)

The ‘Fly Now’ option is not available yet—we’re told the app will be fully ready by 23 February.

For now, you can select ‘Fly Later’, choose the flight you’re coming in on, and add your pick-up/drop details (Bangalore airport/Electronic City). Add luggage information, select the number of seats and complete the payment, through a link in your email.

The government has said that it plans to open up as many as 90 helipads across Bangalore, though only the one at ITC Royal Gardenia on Residency Road has been cleared by the DGCA so far.

Even so, the Bangalore helicopter taxi service finally taking off is good news, especially for bleary-eyed business travellers who routinely have to wake up at 3 am for their 7 am flights.

Roadmap

2017

Q2

Closed pre sale, Nov 2017 - Jan 2018 50% discount, 0.150 USD/Token

Q3 — Q4

Ordering system

2018

Q1

Price and time estimation menu

Q2

Ordering system

Q3

Passenger and driver rating
Advanced booking tab

Q4

Quick destinations
Support chat

2019

Q1

Support for multiple map platforms

Orders for specific time

Q2

Other crypto currencies support

Multiple destination trips

Q3

Web portal for orders

Real time tracking of the cab and passenger

Q4

Smart insurance

Call taxi for a friend

2020

Q1 — Q2

Commercial launch in cities over 1 mln population

Presence in 18 cities total

Q2

3.7 M application downloads

Q4

3.3% online taxi market share, by orders quantity

Token Sale

A total of 200mln ITC tokens is pre-issued, 180 of which will be sold in 2018.

ICO will be conducted in 3 stages – closed pre-sale for large investors, as of May 2018 – 26 mln of tokens are already sold out

Public pre-sale which is expected to launch in September 2018

Public sale which will take place in November of 2018

All unsold tokens during each stage will be transferred to “Reserved by company” pool

ITC token is based on stellar platform. Its infrastructure helps to facilitate cross-transfer value assets, including payments.

Thanks to a single integration in Stellar Network, all participants - people, payment networks or banks - have equal access and participation in the economy.

80 M

Closed Pre sale,
Feb 23 - Sep 15, 2018
0.4 USD/Token

60 M

Public Pre sale,
Sep 16 - Nov 18, 2018
1.2 USD/Token

40 M

Public sale
Nov 19 - Dec 31, 2018
2.4 USD/Token

10M

Key personel &
advisors

10M

Reserved by company

Team

Dennis Shupta
Co-Owner Canmore INC.

Otto Maan
Entrepreneur

Zaur Zack Mishi
Strategic Business Consultant

Mina Azmy
Financial advisor and Marketing Manger

Ramez Shaker
Financial Advisor

Mohamed Hawas
Accounts manger and Financial Advisor

Liubov Yehupova
Specialist in marketing

Advisors

Sujeet Kumar
Ico advisor and India market expert

Ajitkumar Jain
Blockchain Advisor

Matthew Green
ICO Advisor

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