Uber and Airbus team up to offer on-demand chopper services

Ride hailing service Uber has joined hands with Airbus to provide helicopter rides at the Park City event

Ride hailing service Uber has joined hands with Airbus to provide helicopter rides at the Park City event (Fotolia)

If you can cough up the money to travel to Utah to watch the coolest new releases at the Sundance Film Festival this week, get ready to set aside a little more dough.

Google has officially announced the name for its latest iteration of its Android P (9.0), and it's called Android Pie. The mobile OS had been in beta phase for months. Android Pie is rolling out to eligible phones starting today. Apart from a revamped interface, Android Pie comes with various new features, mostly driven by machine learning algorithms. For instance, the OS brings adaptive brightness which understand users' preference for the display brightness and adjusts automatically.

Google has officially announced the name for its latest iteration of its Android P (9.0), and it's called Android Pie. The mobile OS had been in beta phase for months. Android Pie is rolling out to eligible phones starting today. Apart from a revamped interface, Android Pie comes with various new features, mostly driven by machine learning algorithms. For instance, the OS brings adaptive brightness which understand users' preference for the display brightness and adjusts automatically.

With the deal, Uber will be offering on-demand transportation services where it'll deploy H125 and H130 helicopters. Airbus further added that joining hands with Uber will allow for a "a new business model for helicopter operators to access a broader customer base."

Neither company has disclosed how much the on-demand chopper ride would cost, but we predict it won't come cheap. An Airbus spokesman added Uber will provide cars to pick up clients for the chopper ride.

Uber has had similar stints before, though never used as a permanent service option. For instance in 2013, it offered chopper rides during the F1 Grand Prix in Austin. Though the partnership with Airbus suggests that Uber is expanding its services beyond just taxis. It also underlines how Airbus is looking to expand its customer base for helicopter rides given the recent decline in oil prices.

"It's a huge market and I really hope that those who are party to this agreement really don't screw it up," further added Enders.