United Airlines Plans Electric Air Taxi Service From Manhattan To Newark Airport With Archer

In a few years, Wall Street bankers and other denizens of downtown New York City could get the speedy option to fly to and from Newark Liberty airport in an electric air taxi.

United Airlines and Archer Aviation are planning to launch a shuttle service from a heliport near the southern tip of Manhattan to United’s hub at Newark, the companies announced Thursday, a trip they say will take 10 minutes in Archer’s planned four-passenger Midnight aircraft, which is designed to take off and land vertically like a helicopter and fly on wings in between like an airplane.

It’s the first time any of the slew of companies developing electric air taxis has put pins on the map detailing a route. In October, Delta Air Lines announced a partnership with air taxi developer Joby Aviation to offer airport shuttle service in New York City and Los Angeles.

How much could the 8.4-mile trip cost between Newark Liberty and the Downtown Manhattan Heliport? Archer didn’t detail pricing, but if the company can deliver on its stated goal of charging $3 to $4 a passenger mile, that would pencil out to $25 to $32 with a full cabin. Blade charges $195 for helicopter service between Newark Liberty and the West 30^th Street heliport in Midtown Manhattan.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Archer hopes to launch service in 2025 – an ambitious goal given that Midnight has yet to fly, and the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to formulate key regulations that will govern the operation of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, let alone begin the process of certifying as safe any of the novel class of aircraft being developed by Archer and competitors like Joby and Beta Technologies.

Archer plans to unveil Midnight next Wednesday. It’s been flight-testing a smaller version of its design, which features six tilting rotors that face forward in airplane mode and rotate upwards for takeoff and landing, where they’re supplemented by six fixed vertical lift rotors.

United put down a $10 million deposit in August for 100 of Archer’s aircraft and holds a roughly 2% stake in the company. The airline invested in Archer when it struck a deal last year to go public amid the SPAC boom via a reverse merger with a blank check company. Archer shares have fallen 75% to $2.49 since its trading debut Sept. 17, 2021.