What better way to beat Jakarta’s insane traffic jams than to fly over them?

Southeast Asia ride-hailing giant Grab is considering rolling out a helicopter ride option in the city of Jakarta.

As a start, Grab offered the helicopter ride option, called GrabHeli, to its top users and drivers in Indonesia. This special event, which took place on 11 and 12 June, was held in conjunction with Grab’s fifth year anniversary celebrations.

Each helicopter was designed to carry a maximum of four passengers, and the rides lasted for 15 minutes.

“We understand our customers need different transport services at different times and we are committed to providing them with the most accessible and affordable options,” said Ridzki Kramadibrata, Managing Director of Grab Indonesia, in an official press statement.

“Our commitment drives us to always think out of the box and enables us to provide a multi-services platform like we are today. Thus, we are more than excited to soon introduce our latest solution beyond land transport services,” he added.

Also Read: Grab launches digital street hailing, and enhanced telematics and GrabChat on 5th year anniversary

The high-density metropolitan city has the dubious reputation for having one of the worst traffic congestions in the region. These jams can sometimes culminate into a days-long gridlocks, and in some cases, cause fatigue-related deaths.

Helicopters can overcome this issue by simply flying over the ground traffic, though stringent regulations have to be applied to the number of rides to prevent the airspace from being crowded, too. And it goes without saying that maintenance will also have to be more thorough as helicopter-related accidents often lead to fatalities.

Grab’s chief rival Uber is also looking into the air transport space — Wired reported that Uber was mulling the development of electric flying cars. It is not known if Grab has similar plans.

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Image Credit: Grab

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