Door-To-Door Sightseeing Rides Offered By Car Service App Company

If you've ever used Uber to get you home, and thought that it would be cool to have a similar service for helicopters ... Uber apparently thought so too, and tested such a service in Shanghai, China on Saturday.

On the Uber blog, the service is described more as a sightseeing trip than a commute between two points. The trip costs about $484, and is a half-hour trip aboard an EC135 helo operated by KaiJet, which can accommodate up to five passengers.

The service included door-to-door pickup and dropoff in a Mercedes CSL, refreshments, and the helicopter ride.

The Shanghaiist reports that the one-day pilot program on Saturday was a commemoration of the one-year anniversary of Uber's entry into the Chinese market. A similar service is planned for launch in Hangzhou in May, according to the report.

But it is not likely that the service will be expanded to offer commuter services any time soon in China, given the airspace restrictions on low-altitude flights.

Uber does offer such services in the U.S. to customers in New York wishing to fly to the Hamptons and Montauk, and there is a service in Los Angeles as well.

UberCHOPPER, as the service is called, may have a difficult time getting established in China, given competing domestic services and its somewhat tenuous legal standing there. But the one-day test was seen as a "proof of concept" trial to gauge the feasibility of a more permanent service.

(Image from UberCHOPPER YouTube Video)

FMI: https://blog.uber.com/uberchoppersh_en