Bengaluru's much talked about air taxi grabs attention at Invest Karnataka-2025 summit

Bengaluru: Sarla Aviation's futuristic looking air taxi may have been drowned in a sea of aircraft at the Aero Show, but at Invest Karnataka-2025 summit, the prototype 'Shunya' clearly is the star, with people milling around it for more information and selfies.

Not even halfway through day two of the much-awaited event of Bengaluru, Dinesh, one of the founders of Sarla Aviation, was nursing a sore throat after answering a barrage of questions from curious onlookers.

"I ran out of cards too," Dinesh told PTI.

Incidentally, when the news of the air taxi hit the town in October last year, it became the subject of 'Peak Bengaluru' memes as it was announced that a trip to airport from Electronic City will only take 19 minutes and Rs 900.

By road, on a good day, it would take about two hours. The pricing too sounded unbelievable to many Bengalureans who had to shell out at least Rs 1,000 for a trip to airport by cab.

Dinesh said the company is yet to get clearance from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

"Once that is done, we could commission the two aircraft in our fleet immediately," he said.

He estimated that it would require about 18 months to get the clearances in place.

The unmanned aircraft is expected to ferry six passengers at a time, said Dinesh, adding that it can carry a maximum load of 680 kg with speeds reaching up to 250 km/hour. It requires only a cleared area of 2000 sq ft to land or take off, he said.

According to him, the company is looking to add four more aircraft by this year. "It will be optimised for short trips of 20-30 km aimed to reduce travel times across congested urban areas," said Dinesh.

At Invest Karnataka-2025 summit, on till February 14 at Bangalore Palace, air taxi is a static display while in Aero India 2025, also on till February 14 at Yelahanka Air Force base, it is being flown to show people how it works.

The three day event that was inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will conclude on Friday.