Helicopter charter platform Get Heli has become the first company to create a pooling system for helicopters, allowing brokers to offer cheaper air travel while reducing the environmental impact of helicopter flights.

While helicopter travel has traditionally been reserved for the wealthy, Get Heli's heli-pooling shuttle system spreads the cost of charter and opens it out to more people, widening brokers' potential customer base just in time for the 2023 Glastonbury music festival. Travel chaos is regularly in the headlines for this festival in particular, with 210,000 people descending on a village built for 10,000 and previous events blighted by nine-hour traffic jams and train strikes. With heli-pooling making air travel into Glastonbury more affordable for music-lovers than it has been in the past, it's an easy sell for brokers in the run-up to this year's festival.

With the environmental impact of commercial air travel being a key focus in efforts to combat climate change, Get Heli's scheme is also the first answer to using helicopters in a more planet-conscious way. By flying helicopters full, the heli-pooling system replicates the sharing model already familiar in other sectors, such as road travel.

And that's not the only way that it's helping to protect the future of flying. With the ongoing race to introduce the concept of air taxis to replace traditional air shuttle services, the Get Heli pool is at the early stages of redefining travel on heavily congested routes, making it the go-to partner for eVTOL manufacturers.

By giving brokers access to a wider customer base and a more affordable option to offer alongside their traditional charter services, heli-pooling looks set to revolutionise air travel to Glastonbury 2023 and other events popular for helicopter travel.

“Some see the travel as part of the experience, but after five days of partying, many see the travel as an experience to avoid,” comments Laurent Vallet at Get Heli. “We know the price tag of travelling by helicopter isn't for everyone, but our clients group together and, taking into account the almost-certain delays when leaving the festival on the Monday, they see the value in the time saved, not just the kudos of travelling by air.”

To travel to Glastonbury via helicopter, Get Heli is currently offering flights from London at Denham Aerodrome, for GBP995 plus VAT per person based on six people sharing a Leonardo AW109 helicopter.