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Airbus-owned Voom brings its on-demand helicopter service to the US

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Re: Airbus-owned Voom brings its on-demand helicopter service to the US

#21

Post by gbear605 »

evanlivingston wrote: post #13
jessriedel wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be better to set a price per minute, depending on decibels and population density of the area.

Why would that be better?

Suppose that there is a helicopter overhead that you (and the five thousand people around you) would pay a dollar to get rid of. If you tax that flight $5000 and distribute it to the 5000 people who could hear that helicopter, then you get that dollar and you're just as happy as if that flight didn't exist. If you tax that flight $10,000, and distribute it to the 5000 people, then you get two dollars, making you happier than in the scenario where the flight didn't take place.

Obviously, it's impossible to give that money to the people who heard the helicopter, but if you amortize all the flights in the area (say, all of LA) over all the people who live there, and reduce their taxes by that amount, then financially it works out the same. That still leaves some problems (complexity in setting a new tax on helicopter flights, differing value on not-having-helicopter-flights, difficulty of estimation, and so on), and many people want to discourage the mentality of "you can throw money at a problem to get rid of it", but conceptually it seems plausible for taxing the flight to be better than banning it entirely.

Re: Airbus-owned Voom brings its on-demand helicopter service to the US

#22

Post by cornellwright »

tschwimmer wrote: post #19
justapassenger wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Palo Alto to SFO one doesn't really help you get into the city because much of the traffic you'd have to drive through is between SFO and downtown I don't think they target PA SF traffic. This looks more like a last mile connection for people who want to get to Palo Alto, from outside of bay area. Given how many VCs are there, there's some potential market for it.

Checking Google Maps: 1) SFO to Downtown PA: 30 mins 2) Palo Alto Airport to Downtown PA: 15 minutes for $250 one way? Better be some pretty good VCs/Lawyers to pay an extra ~$400 round trip.

I've flown a Cessna 182 into KPAO from Livermore for a couple of VC meetings. It takes about 20 minutes (mostly taxiing time). At rush hour getting between downtown and the airport (and waiting for the Lyft to get to the airport) usually took longer than the flight. Still better than a 2 hour drive though.

Re: Airbus-owned Voom brings its on-demand helicopter service to the US

#23

Post by s0rce »

lozaning wrote: post #16

The pricing for this actually looks much more reasonable than I'd have expected. Last (and only time) I chartered a helicopter it was back to Hong Kong from Macau, and it ran me ~$850.00 USD. Palo Alto to Napa is "only" like $275 with these people.

Was the $850 for chartering whole helicopter or just for 1 seat on a shared ride.

Re: Airbus-owned Voom brings its on-demand helicopter service to the US

#24

Post by ryacko »

gbear605 wrote: post #21
evanlivingston wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would that be better?

Suppose that there is a helicopter overhead that you (and the five thousand people around you) would pay a dollar to get rid of. If you tax that flight $5000 and distribute it to the 5000 people who could hear that helicopter, then you get that dollar and you're just as happy as if that flight didn't exist. If you tax that flight $10,000, and distribute it to the 5000 people, then you get two dollars, making you happ…

That already exists, housing will cost less near airports, which in turn reduces property taxes or rents for people living near the airport.

Re: Airbus-owned Voom brings its on-demand helicopter service to the US

#25

Post by holy_city »

gbear605 wrote: post #21
evanlivingston wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would that be better?

Suppose that there is a helicopter overhead that you (and the five thousand people around you) would pay a dollar to get rid of. If you tax that flight $5000 and distribute it to the 5000 people who could hear that helicopter, then you get that dollar and you're just as happy as if that flight didn't exist. If you tax that flight $10,000, and distribute it to the 5000 people, then you get two dollars, making you happ…

See I don't like this attitude towards tax incentives because you're missing the tree for the woods.

This solution pays me for my inconvenience. It doesn't prevent the inconvenience in the first place or from happening again.

Re: Airbus-owned Voom brings its on-demand helicopter service to the US

#26

Post by big_onion »

holy_city wrote: post #25
gbear605 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suppose that there is a helicopter overhead that you (and the five thousand people around you) would pay a dollar to get rid of. If you tax that flight $5000 and distribute it to the 5000 people who could hear that helicopter, then you get that dollar and you're just as happy as if that flight didn't exist. If you tax that flight $10,000, and distribute it to the 5000 people, then you get two dollars, making you happ…

See I don't like this attitude towards tax incentives because you're missing the tree for the woods. This solution pays me for my inconvenience. It doesn't prevent the inconvenience in the first place or from happening again.

In other words, your point is that there is no dollar value for which you will allow the nuisance. As a phonophobe, this would be my stance as well

Re: Airbus-owned Voom brings its on-demand helicopter service to the US

#27

Post by SamReidHughes »

beering wrote: post #18
justapassenger wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Palo Alto to SFO one doesn't really help you get into the city because much of the traffic you'd have to drive through is between SFO and downtown I don't think they target PA SF traffic. This looks more like a last mile connection for people who want to get to Palo Alto, from outside of bay area. Given how many VCs are there, there's some potential market for it.

Still, PAO is not close to Stanford nor Sand Hill offices if you have to drive through congestion to get there. It would be faster to Uber from SFO to Palo Alto via 280 once you factor in getting on/off your shared helicopter ride.

I met a guy who commuted daily from Hollister to PAO with a plane he flew. With offices a bit further north, I could see SFO being the best option for him.

Re: Airbus-owned Voom brings its on-demand helicopter service to the US

#29

Post by justapassenger »

tschwimmer wrote: post #19
justapassenger wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Palo Alto to SFO one doesn't really help you get into the city because much of the traffic you'd have to drive through is between SFO and downtown I don't think they target PA SF traffic. This looks more like a last mile connection for people who want to get to Palo Alto, from outside of bay area. Given how many VCs are there, there's some potential market for it.

Checking Google Maps: 1) SFO to Downtown PA: 30 mins 2) Palo Alto Airport to Downtown PA: 15 minutes for $250 one way? Better be some pretty good VCs/Lawyers to pay an extra ~$400 round trip.

30min outside of rush hours. More like 1h in rush hours. If they can also cut down time needed to walk around SFO, it could be probably 1h+ win.

I'm not saying that this is a good business and they'll have lots of clients. But there's some possibility of it.

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