---
title: "Uber Now Offering Cheap Helicopter Flights On Demand in Brazil"
description: "A new way to battle gridlock in Sao Paolo."
date: "2016-06-14"
modified: "2016-06-14"
authors:
  - name: "Ben Keeshin"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ben-keeshin"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/3991/uber-now-offering-cheap-helicopter-flights-on-demand-in-brazil"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "brazil"
  - "helicopters"
  - "Uber"
---

# Uber Now Offering Cheap Helicopter Flights On Demand in Brazil

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/061416-uber-helecopter-hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

[Uber is poised to begin offering helicopter rides to users with the tap of an app in Sao Paulo, Brazil](<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-tech-brazil-idUSKCN0YZ2H0>)—but not for the reasons you might think. While Brazil is still contending with an economic crisis and one of the[highest homicide rates in the world](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate>), the Uber copters are a business experiment meant to combat a much more tedious national problem: Sao Paolo's abysmal traffic congestion. Come Friday evenings, [average traffic jams stretch more than 112 miles long](<https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19660765>), streaming out into the suburbs; some nights, those parades of frustration stretch to *180 miles*. No wonder the homicide rate is so high.

Seizing on that fact, [Uber](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/2894/uber-driver-takes-nap-wakes-up-in-police-chase>) is taking advantage of Sao Paolo’s existing helicopter infrastructure—the city boasts 400 aircraft and almost as many helipads—to expand its service. And while current companies serve mainly millionaires, [Uber](<https://www.thedrive.com/tech/3572/what-its-like-to-live-in-a-city-without-uber>) is looking to cater to the merely affluent.

In a month-long pilot program being conducted in partnership with Airbus, [Uber](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/3585/one-third-of-americans-have-never-heard-of-uber-or-lyft>) will offer on-demand rides between airports, hotels, transportation hubs, conference centers, and wealthy neighborhoods. Promotional rates, available through June 17, offer early-adopters one-way trips for startlingly little money; rides between the well-to-do 'hood of Helicentro Morumbi and a luxury hotel four miles away currently run only 66 reals, or around $19 dollars. (Prices will rise by an undisclosed amount after the promotion ends.)

This isn’t the first time [Uber](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/2718/uber-allegedly-ordered-a-whole-bunch-of-mercedes-s-classes-heres-whats-really-happening>) has taken to the skies. Earlier ventures included a helicopter service at the [Bonnaroo and Coachella music festivals](<https://newsroom.uber.com/us-tennessee/roochopper15/>), and a [shuttle between Manhattan and the Hamptons](<https://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/07/01/uber_chopper_helicopter_rides_to_the_hamptons_for_the_rich.html>). But the Brazilian experiment marks a first entry into helicopter-based business travel. For a month, at least, a select, app-wielding slice of Sao Paolo commuters will be able to rise above the miserable fray.

## Author
Ben Keeshin is a former staff writer for Maxim, and before that, contributed writing to the digital sides of Road & Track and Vanity Fair.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/BnKshn>)