Blade to Launch Hamptons-Bound Luxury Bus Line

The wheels on the bus go round and round — even at $275 a seat. 

Over the weekend, the New York-based Uber-for-helicopters company announced it will soon launch a line of luxury buses. The final destination: the Hamptons. Were you expecting anything else?

Riding First Class

Blade’s marquee helicopter service has operated for a decade delivering well-to-do New Yorkers around the city (it also expanded to the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California). With a move into buses, the group plans to keep things classy — and exclusive — with service more akin to first-class flight tickets or luxury private jets than slumming it on a Greyhound.

Naturally, that sets its bus service apart from its major competitor, the storied Hamptons Jitney:

• Blade’s bus service, dubbed the Hamptons Streamliner, will seat 19 passengers. Tickets start at $195, with seven premium seats going for $275; passengers will be treated to free refreshments including Sweetgreen salads and espresso martinis.
• That puts the Streamliner in stark contrast to the 50-year-old Jitney, which typically seats 54 passengers with tickets starting around $41. 

The Streamliner has just one pick-up location, Hudson Yards, and will make just three stops: Southampton, Bridgehampton, and East Hampton. Service will start ahead of Memorial Day weekend and run through the fall.

Heartstopper: Ultra-luxury buses aren’t Blade’s only side hustle. In fact, delivering people via helicopters might also qualify. In its latest earnings report, Blade revealed that 56% of the $225 million in revenue it generated last year came from transporting hearts, livers, lungs, and other human organs around the country — a development recently detailed by Robinhood’s Sherwood News. The company now claims to be the largest transporter of human organs in America. That beats delivering vital human organs via the bus.