Madeline Stone / Business Insider
- Blade, an aviation startup that offers on-demand private flights on helicopters and seaplanes, is providing its employees with an unusual perk: electric scooters for all.
- Blade says it's providing employees with electric scooters to save them money on
transportation and ease commutes to their office. - The office already has a helipad, but em
- Scooters will be dockless and available for employees to check out for 24 hours at a time.
Employees of Blade, an on-demand helicopter ride startup, may not be able to fly to work like some of its posh clientele, but at least they'll be able to commute in style thanks to the company's latest work perk: electric scooters.
The Manhattan-based Blade will soon provide electric scooters to its 25-full time employees, chief financial officer Sean Grennan told Business Insider in an email. The "scooter-sharing pilot program" is meant to ease the back-and-forth commute to work for employees and save money on transportation costs, Grennan said.
Under the Blade pilot program, electric scooters can be checked out for up to 24 hours from the company's helipad-equipped headquarters, which is located in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. Like many electric scooter startups run by Lime, Bird and Spin, the Blade scooters will be dockless, meaning that they can be left anywhere - an app will tell the users, in this case Blade employees, where the closest available scooter can be found.
Grennan says that the scooters, pictured below, are being provided by "various manufacturers," giving Blade the opportunity to test out their models.
Blade
The company notes that the scooters would help "a number of Brooklyn based employees" impacted by next year's shutdown of the L subway line, a popular route for connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Even as transportation startups are entering the scooter ride-share industry, Blade doesn't have any intention of expanding beyond helicopters and into the fast-growing scooter sector, Greenan said.
Blade, a startup founded in 2015, offers on-demand private flights on helicopters, seaplanes, and jets. Through its app, customers can book seats on daily scheduled flights, or charter their own on-demand flights.
The company initially offered flights only between Manhattan and nearby destination spots, like the Hamptons, Nantucket, Westchester, and the Jersey Shore. Blade has since then expanded its offerings to five-minute Blade Bounce helicopter flights to New York area airports, commercial-sized aircraft flights to Miami, and jet planes to Vermont ski resorts.
Blade started off with its one helipad located at its office headquarters, but now has four private helipads (as well as customer lounges for pre-takeoff imbibing) located around the city. Take a look:
Google Maps
Location of Blade's four private terminals around Manhattan