With the daily number of air passengers nearing pre-Covid levels, Uber India has seen increased traction in airport operations last quarter. The number of airport trips are set to rise further as the festive season gathers steam, spurring the ride-hailing firm to work on expanding its footprint in both geographical reach and services.
Abhilekh Kumar, director (Business Development), Uber India & South Asia, told ET that airport travel is a key business focus area.
“Our goal is to maximise our airport footprint over the next 2-3 years, both in terms of services (product lines) and geographical reach (number of airports) so that we can serve all customer segments through the wide array of our offerings,” he said.
Airport trips currently account for 10% of the firm’s total 4-wheeler trips in the country, and it expects this number to grow by as much as 50% over the next three years.
Uber India recently tied-up with Adani Airports at Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Lucknow and Jaipur for airport operations. Airports – where the ride hailing firm has partnerships with operator companies – account for roughly 70% of all its passenger pick-ups and drops across the country. Overall, Uber India has airport partnerships across 12 cities in the country.
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With companies mandating employees to work from office, business from the corporate sector too is on an upswing. “B2B partnerships have bounced back well since the pandemic.
The traffic (and in turn passenger flow) has nearly reached pre-covid levels”, said Kumar, adding, though, this has come on the back of some fundamental changes to the business and emphasis on safety and quality being more pronounced.
Uber India is engaging with stakeholders, including government departments, EV OEMs, banks and NBFCs, fleet partners and charging infrastructure operators on ways to accelerate the transition to e-mobility in the B2B segment.
Kumar said the company has agreed to work on scaled pilots to test out the key operating parameters. We have partnerships with Yulu, Mahindra, SUN Mobility, Lithium, and Moove, among others, to be able to make the best of what’s working on ground to make the EV transition at scale,” he said.
Overall, with economic activities gathering pace, Kumar expects demand for ride-hailing services to increase next year.
“The ridesharing industry, like many others, saw two very lean years, and is finally registering resurgent growth after many months of business recovery. We expect this to accelerate further next year and our intent is to take the whole array of our product offerings to as many riders as possible,” he said.
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