00:00 Speaker A

Well, flying taxis in the New York City Skyline may soon become a reality. Vertical Aerospace, unveiling its New York rap plans for its Velo electric aircraft. Services are set to launch in 2028 subject to approval. Pras Subramanian is here with me. Pras, walk me through it.

00:14 Pras Subramanian

Before we get into that service, I want to talk to you about the plane, the Velo, right? So it’s an EVTOL, TOL, right? So it’s electric vertical takeoff and landing. Uh it’s so it’s all run on batteries and electric motors. Uh has about a 100 mile range or thereabouts and can fly about 150 miles per hour. This thing can fit six people plus a pilot. Uh it’s a luxurious cabin configuration there. and all the luggage. This is a big deal, right? So they want to, you know, they want to sell this thing, this Velo to actual uh airlines and other businesses. They don’t want to operate it. They want to be a manufacturer and other like let’s say American Airlines and Japan Airlines are are customers. They will use these things to ferry customers from place to place. Uh, you know, before flights. So this is the this is the business model. Urban air mobility they call it. Uh looks very promising. It’s quiet, it’s clean. Uh the question is can they get certified in the next couple years by 2028? That’s the big target for them and and they think the sky’s the limit once they can do that.

01:21 Speaker A

What what are the New York plans exactly? Like what are they how are they talking about this? What are going to be the use cases?

01:28 Pras Subramanian

So, uh basically the airlines want to be able to take people from the airport to uh Manhattan, right? As opposed to using Ubers and things like that. So this is the next way to do that. So they’re talk they’re talking about taking a flight from Lower Manhattan to JFK in eight minutes. right? The cost would be about the cost of an Uber Black per per per per passenger, right? So not, you know, Uber Black, 150 bucks for the whole car. Here, 150 or thereabouts per person. So it’s not cheap, but it’s not insanely expensive either. You want to get to JFK fast, you’ll pay that, right? So that’s the goal. You can see the the map here, JFK, Newark, Teterboro, and eventually East Hampton.

02:05 Speaker A

And the business model, Pros, walk me through it. How how how do they, how do they make money?

02:11 Pras Subramanian

Well, it’s it’s they’re going to be selling the aircraft to their customers, their their their partners like Japan airlines and and uh also um American. But also the the Bristo group is a helicopter operating company. They they manage fleets everywhere in the world. They would be their partner in New York City to fly those air taxis, you know, from place to place. So they would sell their craft is what their their plan is.

02:37 Speaker A

Who’s their competition, by the way?

02:39 Pras Subramanian

Uh Joby is one big one. Joby aviation. They know they bought Blade uh and they have their own electric vertical takeoff landing vehicles. But Joby, my understanding is they want to actually manage their aircraft and and and they will you rent it through them, not the other way around. But I think Joby is going to partner with Uber, so then Uber could do that. So it all depends on how you want to do you want to own and operate or do you want to just sell the planes. That’s sort of the the mix.

03:09 Speaker A

All right. Thank you, Pras. Appreciate it.