Story ID: 
Uber Plans Four-Day Helicopter Experiment at Sundance
By: Thierry Dubois
Caption: Airbus teamed with Uber to offer the flights during the festival as part of what the manufacturer calls a market pilot.
Word Count: 193
Airbus Group has teamed with on-demand transportation network specialist Uber to offer helicopter flights during the Sundance film festival between Salt Lake airport and Park City, Utah, where the festival takes place. Salt Lake City-based Air Resources will operate the flights, from January 21 to 24. Air Resources was chosen because it is a local operator of Airbus Helicopters' H125 light singles. Using a dedicated app, passengers can book a trip starting with a car ride to a heliport near Salt Lake City airport, continuing with the helicopter flight to the festival's heliport and ending with a car ride direct to the ticket holder's gate at the venue.

This is one of the first projects Airbus Group's A3 innovation center in the Silicon Valley has launched. The stated goal is to explore a new business model for helicopter operators to access a broader customer base. “This is not a partnership, rather a market pilot,” an Airbus Group spokesman told AIN, emphasizing the experiment could help helicopters become a common means of transportation. He declined to say whether Uber is paying Airbusor whether Airbus is providing strengthened technical support to Air Resources.