Air taxis promise to get you back from Heathrow in 8 minutes

Pretty much everyone who has suffered a long-haul flight wishes they could blink and be back home.

While sadly teleportation isn’t quite a thing yet, Virgin Atlantic will soon offer bleary-eyed passengers the option to take a flying taxi home.

The airline wants to open air taxi hubs in London, offering flying cabs that could get from Heathrow to central London in only eight minutes.

Joby Aviation, an American start-up that built the air taxis, says the trip would cost about £120.

The same ride in a black cab would take about 50 minutes and cost between £70 and £120, while an Uber would set you back at least £54.

Manchester will also see an air taxi hub, as part of a multi-year agreement Jody Aviation signed with Virgin Atlantic announced yesterday.

These flying vehicles could zip from Manchester Airport to Leeds, about 40 miles away, in roughly 15 minutes as they zoom at 200mph.

Virgin Atlantic didn’t say when the air taxi service will launch, but the Civil Aviation Authority wants to certify passenger air taxis from 2028.

Travellers will one day book a flying cab, sometimes called electric planes, on the Virgin Atlantic mobile app or website.

Virgin Atlantic CEO Corneel Koster said at the Farnborough International Airshow yesterday that it will be part of a ‘premium customer experience’.

‘This agreement marks an exciting next chapter in our partnership with Joby and a significant step towards bringing electric air taxi services to the UK,’ Koster added.

JoeBen Bevirt, the founder of Jody, added: ‘The UK is one of the most exciting markets for this technology, and this partnership could drive significant opportunities for Joby as we bring air taxi service to some of the country’s busiest cities.’

What is an air taxi?

Air taxis are a type of electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft, or eVTOLs (pronounced ‘ee-vee-tols).

Most models are fitted with six propellers to take off vertically, like a helicopter.

Once in the air, these propellers tilt so the aircraft flies like a plane, allowing it to duck in and out of cities to whisk people to airports or, we assume, Tesco’s.

Air taxi designers tout it as a quieter and cleaner alternative to conventional helicopters, which can be costly to operate.

Some experts say advanced air mobility craft could become a regular sight in the UK by the end of the decade, even replacing cars for some users.

But these same designers have repeatedly delayed their air cab schemes – Uber wanted its air taxis in the skies by 2020, only to sell its unit to Joby that year, which set a new target of 2023.

One of the biggest hurdles facing these futuristic vehicles is public perception – after all, most people aren’t even convinced about driverless cars, let alone flying ones.

Concerns over noise and how expensive they will be have been raised, as have their limited range – most can only go about 100 miles.

Officials also need to get their heads around building all the infrastructure to charge or fuel aircraft in already crowded and expensive places.

These same officials also need to certify the many new parts and aircraft, a process that can take years.

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