Air taxi service yet to take off in India

The much-hyped first air taxi service in the country, which was launched with fanfare by the Haryana government earlier this year was discontinued in August, barely seven months after becoming operational. This has come as a shock as expectations were that this new segment of urban commute will emerge as the next focus in the aviation sector after the government notified drone norms last month.

An air taxi, which usually has a capacity of four people, including the pilot, is a passenger service which typically makes short flights to provide people with on-demand air services to locations within a particular region. Specialised aircraft such as very light jets may be part of such services, offering seats to a small number of passengers.