Vertical Aerospace awaiting approval for NYC air taxi service
00:00 Speaker A
Flying taxis in the New York City Skyline may soon become a reality. Vertical Aerospace unveils New York rap plans for its Velo electric plane. Services will launch in 2028, subject to approval. Pras Subramanian is here with me. Pras, guide me.
00:14 Pras Subramanyan
Before we start that service, I want to talk to you about the plane, the Velo, right? So it’s an EVTOL, TOL, right? That is, electric vertical takeoff and landing. So they all run on batteries and electric motors. It has a range of about 100 miles and can fly at about 150 miles per hour. This thing can fit six people plus a pilot. Ah, there’s a luxurious cabin layout there. and all luggage. This is a big deal, right? So they want to sell this thing, this Velo, to actual airlines and other businesses. They don’t want to run it. They want to be manufacturers and others are customers of, say, American Airlines and Japan Airlines. They will use these to transport customers from one place to another. You know, before flights. That’s the business model. They call it urban air mobility. It looks very promising. It is quiet, clean. The question is, can they get certified in the next few years by 2028? This is the biggest goal for them and when they can do this, they think the sky is the limit.
01:21 Speaker A
What exactly are New York’s plans? Like, what are they, how do they talk about it? What will the use cases be?
01:28 Pras Subramanyan
So airlines want to be able to take people from the airport to Manhattan, right? As opposed to using Ubers and things like that. So this is the next way to do it. They are said to plan to fly from Lower Manhattan to JFK in eight minutes. Right? The cost would be about what an Uber Black costs per passenger, right? So you know Uber Black isn’t $150 for the entire car. Here, it’s 150 or so per person. So it’s not cheap, but it’s not overly expensive either. If you want to get to JFK as soon as possible, you’ll pay for it, right? So that’s the goal. You can see the map here, JFK, Newark, Teterboro and finally East Hampton.
02:05 Speaker A
And Pros, the business model, guides me in this regard. How do they do it, how do they make money?
02:11 Pras Subramanyan
They will sell the aircraft to their customers, partners such as Japanese airlines, and also to Americans. However, the Bristo group is also a company that operates helicopters. They manage fleets all over the world. They would have partners in New York to fly those air taxis from place to place. So they were going to sell their craft, that was their plan.
02:37 Speaker A
By the way, who is their rival?
02:39 Pras Subramanyan
Oh Joby is such a great man. Joby aviation. They know they got the Blade and they have their own electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle. But Joby, my understanding is that they actually want to manage their planes and you will lease them through them, not the other way around. But I think Joby will partner with Uber, then Uber can do it. So it all depends on how you want to own and operate the aircraft or whether you just want to sell them. It’s kind of a mix.
03:09 Speaker A
Certainly. Thank you Pras. Appreciate it.
