MELBOURNE: Australia’s most livable city is slated to have a flying taxi service to its existing transport options. Melbourne joins US cities Los Angeles and Dallas as locations for an Uber pilot project aimed at launching the company’s flying taxi service called Uber Air.

The company cited Australia’s friendly skies and open minds when it comes to non-traditional transport technologies as reasons behind the choice. “Australian governments have adopted a forward-looking approach to ridesharing and future transport technology,” said Susan Anderson, general manager for Uber in Australia and New Zealand adding further, “This, coupled with Melbourne’s unique demographic and geospatial factors, and culture of innovation and technology, makes Melbourne the perfect third launch city for Uber Air.”

Anderson also hinted at plans to expand Uber Air trials to other Australian cities soon after. A traditional driver-owned vehicle model won’t apply here, so an engineering team, led by former NASA engineer Mark Moore, is working to create an electric aircraft fleet made for travel in urban airspace.

Flying Taxis Vehicles will be designed to meet a perfect standards which include noise limitations, battery storage, payload space and overall vehicle size.  The trial is a collaborative effort, leaning on the expertise of Australian companies including Macquarie, Telstra, Scentre Group and Melbourne Airport for infrastructure and telecommunications support.

According to Uber’s website, the long-term vision is for safe, quiet electric aircraft that transport “tens of thousands of people across cities for the same price as an UberX trip over the same distance”. “The 19 km journey from the CBD to Melbourne airport can take anywhere from 25 minutes to around an hour in peak hour, but with Uber Air this will take around 10 minutes,” reveals Eric Allison, global head of Uber Elevate, the parent program of Uber Air.

Test flights in Melbourne are due to start from 2020 and the company plans to begin commercial operations in 2023. (Agencies)