An Urban Air Mobility (UAM) network could soon be rolled out across the New York metropolitan area. To this end, Archer Aviation Inc. and United Airlines announced their first route. This would run from the United operations center at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to New York City.
With this in mind, the heliport in downtown Manhattan has been confirmed as the first planned takeoff and landing location.
Additionally, Archer’s proposed Manhattan to EWR route is the first dedicated route to be announced in the eVTOL industry.
You could say it’s a strategic route, as United’s EEA hub is ideally located to serve Manhattan. This also applies to surrounding counties and communities in New Jersey.
What would the trips be like?
A ride on the all-electric Midnight aircraft from Midtown Manhattan Heliport to EWR takes less than 10 minutes.
This was confirmed by Archer, who also estimated that a similar car journey would take more than an hour during peak traffic times.
Therefore, the main aim of the air taxi network would be to provide passengers with safe, fast, silent and cost-effective transport to and from the EEA.
In this regard, Adam Goldstein, Founder and CEO of Archer, expressed the company’s enthusiasm for the development of the national UAM network.
The CEO also noted that they look forward to continuing their collaboration with United and working closely with state and local government leaders. This would be particularly the case in the New York and New Jersey areas.
Meanwhile, New York Mayor Eric Adams expressed his satisfaction that Archer and United Airlines have decided to launch their first route right there.
“We want New York to be a place of bold innovation and encourage other companies to follow our example,” Adams said.