Uber, the San-Fransisco car sharing service is set to offer helicopter taxi services at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Uber has looped in French helicopter firm Helipass to offer sky taxis throughout the Cannes Film Festival from May 13 to 24. The service will allow guests to catch a ride from the Nice-Côte d’Azur airport to Cannes for about 160 euros for the 7 minutes ride. Uber has been testing the Chopper service where one can reserve a helicopter flight. The tests took place in the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York as well as South Africa, Brazil and Australia, where helicopter flights are more common.
UberFrance is working on integrating the service for its users in readiness for the Festival. The Uber App will have a separate icon as from the first day of the festival. After making the bookings, which will work as with the request a ride service currently available, a user will wait 15 minutes to take off. There will be seven helicopters on permanent rotation offering from 3 to 6 seats. The Cannes film festival is expected to attract 125,000 guests. This is the second time Uber is offering the service at the Festival. In 2014, it offered a private jet service for guests modelled on its Uber Black service. The service charged 6,490 euros ($8,930) per plane which flew up to four passengers. The cheaper Uber Chopper service premiered in Lisbon where rides were offered for 137 euros.
Uber runs Uber Black a premium ride service offering SUV rides for business executives. It also has Uber Pop/UberX that launched locally, which allows one to share rides with other users and is cheaper. Uber recently unveiled a food delivery service UberFresh in Newyork and Barcelona. It also plans on penetrating the Indian market with Uber Auto for Rickshaws. Uber boats and UberChopper are also on the menu. Its clearly the Uber of Things.
