Virgin Atlantic "Tubular Belle" Boeing 747-400 that is taxiing (get it?)
Have you ever flown into a large city, had to grab a taxi downtown and thought, “man there have to be other people doing the same thing? I wish I could save a few bucks and share a cab.” Maybe you had the guts to ask people around you where they were going, but for those of us who don’t, you now have another option.
Virgin Atlantic working with NESTA (UK endowment to support innovation) is helping to test a program to help passengers share a Taxi. Called Taxi2, passengers can sign up on their website, input their flight details, they are then sent information on a probable match and can choose to accept or reject the match. The site will let you pick the sex of your passenger (presumably for safety female passengers, not to set up a date) and the program is not limited to just Virgin Atlantic customers.
Ed Maklouf, founder of Taxi2, said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Virgin Atlantic for this scheme, and our expectation is that this simple, sensible way of saving money and cutting down congestion and carbon footprint will become common activity for air travelers worldwide.”
You are even able to print off your own mini-sign (called “Clever-Ticket”) to help meeting up with your new taxi-friend.
The website isn’t clear where passengers can use the service. I asked Virgin Atlantic and they said, “Since the service is in beta for the first few months we developed it for the London to NY routes initially, however passengers traveling to any of our gateways can utilize the program.” It might be limited now, but hopefully it takes off (heh) and will spread to other locations worldwide. Passengers can get the speed and convenience of a taxi, but the cost of an airport shuttle.
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Image: Rich Snyder