Blade Air Mobility
Blade is a crowdsourced, short-distance aviation company based in New York City, United States, operating between Manhattan, the Hamptons, and (major) surrounding airports. Blade was the first company to use the crowdsourcing business model in its industry, allowing them to offer cost savings to the consumer. Blade enables travelers to fly on their own schedule at near the net cost of a single seat by selling unused seats of their charter. All Blade flights are operated by Liberty Helicopter, Inc. Blade itself is not a direct nor indirect air carrier.
History
Summer Launch
Launching Memorial Day (May 26) of 2014, Blade began serving the Northeast summer resort area known as the Hamptons. Originally offering three routes, with service between Manhattan, Southampton, East Hampton, and Montauk. By the close of the season, an estimated 15% of the Hamptons summer population had downloaded the Blade mobile application on their iOS and Android phones, making it the second most popular regional application on Long Island.
Between Memorial Day and Labor Day of 2014, Blade flew over 790 flights. At the height of the summer season, Blade flew more flights in one day to the Hamptons than US Airways had shuttles from New York City to Boston that same day.
Route Expansion
In November of 2014, Blade announced a new product offering, called Blade Bounce. Blade Bounce operates service between Manhattan's West 30th and East 34th Street Heliports and surrounding public and private metropolitan airports. The first route offerings included New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, the largest private airport servicing New York City, as well as John F. Kennedy International Airport. The trip takes only four minutes, versus almost an hour by car, and is comparable in cost to most ground-based livery options.
The company has stated that it plans on offering service from Manhattan to the surrounding metropolitan airports, including Newark International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, as well as expanding its Hamptons service to Westhampton, in the near future.
Current Routes
Customers have the ability to crowdsource their own helicopter from Manhattan to any destination currently serviced by Blade at a time that works for them. Single seats are also available for purchase on all routes to the Hamptons, originating from the crowdsourced flights of others.
| Route | Duration |
|---|---|
| Manhattan - Southampton | 30 minutes |
| Manhattan - East Hampton | 35 minutes |
| Manhattan - Montauk | 60 minutes |
| Manhattan - Tererboro Airport | 4 minutes |
| Manhattan - John F. Kennedy Airport | 4 minutes |
Operation
Passengers must download the Blade app to their iOS or Android device, sign up for an account, and enter additional information such as a valid phone number and credit card details. When a passenger wants to fly, he or she opens the app and selects a charter to join at a time that is convenient for them. If no time works for the passenger, he or she can crowdsource their own helicopter at a more convenient time; those remaining seats on a crowdsourced charter may then go on to be sold to other flyers through the digital community Blade provides in-app.
Promotions
Over the 2014 July 4th Weekend, Blade partnered with Uber to power Uber Chopper, a service that allowed Uber users to book a helicopter through their mobile application.
During the Thanksgiving and Winter holiday travel season, Blade partnered with JetSmarter to offer its user base the opportunity to book a helicopter to their private jets. (Once jet smarter is finalized, this is where the details of promotion will be placed)
Reception
In May of 2014, Blade was featured and demoed on CNBC’s Squawkbox program with Carl Quintanilla and Robert Frank. It was received with praise for its time-savings on heavily trafficked routes. Blade was again featured on Squawkbox in November with the launch of its Blade Bounce service.
Blade has been featured in several other publications, including the The New York Times, Forbes Magazine, the New York Post tabloid, New York Magazine, Adweek, and CNN Money.