Uber Flights and Other Airplane Ride Shares

I’m sorry, Uber is doing WHAT now?!

Yup, you read that right, Uber is offering FLIGHTS. Forget trying to get a rideshare to the airport on the ground when you can get picked up by a helicopter instead!

We just want trains, why do they keep doing things for transportation that we don’t need or want?!

So, let’s dive in, shall we? From Uber Elevate to booking your own rideshare flight to the environmental impact of personal flights, let’s go.

What is Uber Elevate?

Created in 2016, according to Joby (who we will learn more about later), “Uber Elevate has played an important role in laying the groundwork for the aerial ridesharing market by bringing together regulators, civic leaders, real estate developers, and technology companies around a shared vision for the future of air travel. Their software tools enabling market selection, demand simulation, and multi-modal operations are at the center of their work, and form the basis of this future-focused deal.”

According to Uber, Uber Elevate is essentially an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) that will “be more cost- and space-efficient than infrastructure-heavy and capital-intensive approaches such as roads, rails, bridges, and tunnels. Our designs make use of repurposed decks of parking garages and existing helipads that will create the basis of an extensive, distributed network of skyports in the future.”

So, it doesn’t seem to be as bad as I’m sure we all first thought. Their goal is a fully electric fleet of VTOL aircraft that take up less room than aircraft that require runways and require fewer infrastructures than cars.

My first issue is, there is ALREADY infrastructure built for cars. The demand for Uber and other rideshares is not creating a need for more parking lots, bridges, cars, and highways, it’s taking advantage of the infrastructure we already have. Meanwhile, we will have to build more heliports should eVTOL take off (haha pun surely was intended there). So, I think that argument is pretty null.

In 2020, Uber first announced its partnership with Joby in this press release:

“Joby Aviation, a transportation company developing an all-electric, vertical take-off and landing passenger aircraft, which it intends to operate as early as 2023, today announced that Uber Technologies, Inc (NYSE: UBER) has agreed to invest a further $75 million in Joby as part of a broader transaction involving the acquisition of Uber Elevate by Joby and an expanded partnership between the two parent companies.”

Though their goal was 2023, there still isn’t a way to book an Uber Elevate flight on their website. Perhaps it’s still in the works. I think their main issue is going to be the lack of heliports, and honestly, the lack of business. If their cars already cost $50-100, how much is an electric flight going to cost? We will see where Uber Elevate takes us, but for now, someone else seems to be handling the job.

The “Uber of Flying”?

But recently, the article that caught my eye, this new up-and-coming company, KinectAir, has been deemed “The Uber of Flying”. Which, seems bad, but, once again, is not as bad as I had originally thought. This other company, KinectAir, is a private aircraft company that focuses on airframes that are more fuel-efficient making private flights cheaper and a little greener (a little). Anyone can book a flight with KinectAir. They make “private flights accessible” by renting aircraft to passengers so they don’t have to own their own aircraft.

After trying to book my own flight solely for the sake of this post (don’t worry, I didn’t take it), I can assure you this is NOT accessible. Sure, it’s cheaper than owning a whole aircraft, but I’m not sure who in charge over there thinks a $4-20k flight is accessible. It’s true, here are my local private flight costs:

Inaccessibility aside, KinectAir is doing something cool…I guess for the elite, at least. They allow you to book an “empty leg flight.” What this is, is “an opportunity to provide bargains to potential passengers. An empty-leg flight occurs when a private jet is chartered to a specific location and has no passengers for its return flight back to its home base.”

Honestly, pretty cool that they allow the planes to load up people to make the flight worth it instead of flying an empty plane. But, is this version more accessible price-wise? I wouldn’t say accessible, but they surely are much cheaper than the other option. Yes, it’s cool that they allow this, but for us average Joe’s, the cheapest option is clearly still commercial.

I’m not sure that this method of travel will ever take off (haha how many times can I do this pun in this post) since the cost of a rideshare car or commercial flight is so much cheaper. Perhaps those with the money who want more convenience will catch on, but in this economy, who can afford those kinds of prices? Not that many of us, that’s for sure.

Do I think Uber Elevate or KinectAir are bad, no, I think they found markets for themselves and honestly they’re kind of making a luxury as good of a thing as they can from eVTOLs to using empty aircraft. But, I truly don’t think this is the future we need or want.

The environmental impact of private jets

Let’s quickly talk about the environmental impact of private jets. Yes, I know Uber Elevate is going electric (maybe, it’s still not finished so we will see) but KinectAir’s business model is only halfway sustainable and it only came about out of a need to not lose money on empty flights. Their main mission is wasteful private flights. It is not only celebrities and politicians who will be taking private planes, but average (well, above average according to the cost) people will start to take them too as this option becomes more and more popular.

Okay, leave your guesses below on how much more pollutive you think a private jet is over a commercial aircraft for one passenger, the answer sure shocked me. It is “approximately 45 times as many emissions as a traveler flying commercially on the same route and more than 1,100 times the emissions of a person on a train” according to Simple Flying. Imagine if our governments and these private companies cared more about train infrastructure or buses than private planes. It’s 1,100 times BETTER for the planet to take a train than a private jet. From the same article, it’s estimated that only about 0.0008% of the population owns a private jet. Of course, this doesn’t really matter with companies like KinectAir allowing more people to take a private flight, not own their own jet, but still.

BUT, nearly 17% of all flights handled by the Federal Aviation Administration are private flights. Also according to Simple Flying, “private jets emit at least 10 times more pollutants than commercial planes per passenger. Emissions have increased by more than 23% as private jet use has risen by about a fifth since the COVID-19 pandemic began.”

Elon Musk alone, not even counting the other estimated 64,000 people to own a private jet, flew 171 private flights in 2022. This produced around 2100 tons of CO2 emission which is about 130 times more than a single average person. 130 times ONE person. Just from his flights. Kylie Jenner also went viral in 2022 for flying a 17-minute flight from Van Nuys to Camarillo, California when they are less an 40 miles apart.

I’m not just picking on him, it’s just the most easily available stats. Nor am I saying billionaires, celebrities, and politicians should take commercial flights. I mean, they should, but I know they can’t. We worship them too much. I mean, look what happens when Taylor Swift goes to a friend’s wedding. Can you imagine if she or Kim K or Joe Biden showed up at a regular airport? Pandemonium.

The only thing we can do here (besides stop worshiping celebs so they don’t feel the need to do this anymore) is to tax the rich for their impact on the planet. The numbers are clear, just in flights alone, they can have up to 130x emissions from an average person. I also write this to say that I’m not the enemy and you’re not the enemy. Let’s stop pointing our fingers at each other for driving a certain vehicle or eating a certain way when the emissions of Elon Musk exist.

Anyway, back to taxes, according to Simple Flying, “private jet flights contribute to only 2% of the taxes that make up the trust fund that primarily funds the FAA. Passengers that purchase commercial flights represent the overwhelming majority of the tax revenue that makes up the aviation trust fund, which is around 70%.” Keep in mind, that flying privately is 45x more pollutive, but commercial flights are responsible for 35x more of the taxes than private jets. I know, more people are flying commercial, but we’re not the main polluters.

At the end of the day…

You flying a couple of times a year is not killing the planet. Yes, it would be great if every person could avoid every flight, but we can’t. Next time you have to take a flight, don’t beat yourself up over it. Our small actions matter, but we’re not the culprits. Remember that.

I think what Uber Elevate is doing is a cool step in the right direction. I don’t even hate the empty flight plan that KinectAir does, it’s not terrible. But, private flights are not the answer to anything, let alone the climate crisis (yes, even electric flights due to the insane mining and manufacturing it takes to create EVs).

What we need is more buses, more trains, better schedules, more operators, and better infrastructure and we aren’t getting that. Instead, we’re getting self-charging roads (should I cover that next?) and electric private jets. Neither will solve these problems.

Thank you for reading along, this was a first-of-its-kind post for me and I really enjoyed working on it! I want to cover more current events and curious findings in the eco-space so let me know what I should talk about next.

As always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)

Emma

What is Uber Elevate?

The “Uber of Flying”?

The environmental impact of private jets

At the end of the day…

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