Stellantis proposes a new air taxi to travel from downtown New York to the airport in minutes

Air taxis pop up in the news every now and then, but the reality is that the rollout of this service is not ready and is not expected to be for a few years. And that, with luck. The legislation that would allow their use is still very behind and no valid rollout can be expected for a long time. But in the meantime, initiatives of this kind keep emerging that could turn it into reality or, at least, propose fairly interesting solutions to make it real as soon as possible.

Stellantis has partnered with Archer to propose an air taxi service that would run from downtown New York to any of the city’s airports in a matter of minutes. That same journey, during rush hour, can take two or three hours, so it presents a useful and simple solution for offering this service.

The third leg of this collaboration is United Airlines, which has found this service very practical and wants to add its experience in the aviation market. The air taxi these three companies have proposed will be operated by an Archer Midnight. It is a vertical take-off and landing aircraft that can carry four passengers and has a range of up to 161 kilometres.

Three routes have been created to reach the three airports in the area, LaGuarida, JFK and Newark quickly, with times ranging between five and fifteen minutes. In this way, city traffic can be avoided and delays are prevented.

From a heliport to the airport

This vehicle would be boarded at a heliport in the city centre and would take passengers to the airport they need to reach within minutes. To improve safety, the Midnight has redundant systems and uses 12 motors with their respective propellers, so it can keep flying even if one of them fails.

For this system to be approved, it must obtain authorisation from the FAA and secure the corresponding certification so that it can operate without problems. Will we see this service in operation soon? As always, it depends on whether it can get through the demanding aviation legislation of the United States and, from there, move on to other cities. It would be a good way to get to the airport, but we will have to see whether the cost of the service allows it to become popular or whether it stays for a few lucky people.

https://youtu.be/IlKlrEjGYPU