In gridlocked Jakarta, Indonesia's first airport helicopter service targets niche market

Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, is notorious for its traffic congestion, which is often cited as one of the worst in the world. With people typically spending a minimum of two hours on the road, getting to Soekarno-Hatta International airport located on the outskirts of the city can be even more challenging. This problem is exactly what Denon Prawiraatmadja, CEO of aviation company Whitesky Aviation, tries to tackle by launching a service for people to use his chopper to fly to or from the airport. “It is more about accessibility, that's the main thing. One of the main benefits of using this helicopter service is access to the airport,” said Prawiraatmadja. With Helicity, customers can fly from the airport to their designated destination in the Greater Jakarta area and vice versa in about 15 minutes between 6am and 6pm daily. It also caters for people who live in West Java province such as Bandung and Cirebon. To use the service, one must book at least a day in advance on its app and be willing to pay around 8m to 20m rupiah (US$555 to US$1,387), depending on the distance. Story has more.<br/>