If you’ve ever imagined yourself as a big-shot New York executive – and we all have at some point, haven’t we? – you could be forgiven for focusing on the plus points and ignoring the minus ones. You’ve probably envisaged walking briskly through your skyscraper office complex, barking out orders to the minions who struggle to keep up with you. All you can picture is yourself issuing a never-ending barrage of messages: “Get me Sapperstein on line three”, “Clear out your desk, you’re fired”, I want a skinny caramel latte and I want it now!”….you get the picture, of course.
Now, the disadvantages you haven’t taken into account are likely to include the commute. Here in the UK, we get stuck in traffic for more than five minutes and we think the world has ended. If our train is running late, we immediately take to Twitter and complain. And if the skinny caramel latte isn’t quite skinny enough, our stress levels go through the roof. This morning has been a complete disaster, and the rest of the day will be just as terrible. I hate my life, and as soon as I get home I’m going back to bed. That kind of thing.
If you were that high-flying Big Apple executive, though, a dreadful commute to and from the nerve centre would be all part of the process. Getting into Manhattan from the commuter belt in New Jersey can seem horrific to the average Brit, even if you’re sitting in the back of a limo while some other poor guy deals with the traffic. If only there was some other way. If only you could just fly above the gridlock like a skylark, without a care in the world. Well, there’s going to be an opportunity to do just that, and it’s coming soon.
A recent announcement by United Airlines and Archer Aviation is likely to be seen as something of a game-changer for the business elite in New York. In 2025, these companies are planning to run a regular air taxi service from Newark into Manhattan, with flight times around the ten-minute mark. Ten minutes. Imagine that as an alternative to sitting in a seven-mile tailback in the Holland Tunnel or on the Verrazano Bridge. You’d be able to get into the office and start shouting at people an hour earlier than normal. What a world we’re going to be living in!
Cutting journey times by half, then half again, then half again…
According to the good people at Google Maps, the 17.5-mile trip from Newark to the planned destination, the Heliport close to Manhattan’s Battery Park, would take more than an hour at 8:00 this morning, possibly even an hour and 40 minutes. By all-singing, all-dancing air taxi, it’s a fraction of the time. And the trip from Newark might just be only the beginning. Soon we could see flights from various New Jersey locations, such as Bloomfield, East Orange, Patterson and East Caldwell. If you’re a fan of The Sopranos, you’ll already have heard of these places.
And one day we could see a similar service operating in the UK, so that our executives can also shout at people earlier than they once did. Plans at the moment are for air taxis in New York and Los Angeles, but over time they could be sprouting up everywhere. Here at Rose Media Group, we’re looking forward to leaving the car at home and flying gently into Burgess Hill like the aforementioned skylark. We have to admit, though, that setting out from the likes of Wivelsfield Green, Lower Beeding, Warninglid and Pease Pottage doesn’t sound quite so Soprano-like, does it?
And while the time-management of our top executives is important, of course it’s more significant that the planes are going to be all-electric. They’ll be able to take off and land vertically, so they won’t need access to a runway, and they’ll fly low so it will seem more like they are hovering. There will be room for four passengers, and conceivably the day will come when there are dozens and dozens of flights to choose from. This is big news. So big that it seems the predictions made in The Jetsons cartoons from way back when will finally come true.
Also, Net Zero, that almost mythical status that we’re supposedly heading towards, could be getting a little closer thanks to this development. Whoever thought the day would come when you’d say “I’ll take the plane into work this morning, it’ll be better for the environment”? Strange days, indeed.
Rose Media Group is a specialist Sussex PR agency, and we keep a close eye on all developments within the aviation and other sectors.
