Uber is expanding its functionality to book at the airport globally, giving users more opportunities to plan their airport pickup in advance. As of Thursday, this feature is available at 55 airports around the world, including 39 in the United States.
Uber launched “Reserve at Airports” in about 20 US cities in 2020. This feature allows you to book a ride from the airport up to 30 days in advance. It adjusts the Uber reservation time based on flight information, so the driver arrives at the same time as their passenger, even if their flight is early or delayed. The driver waits 60 minutes, which gives the passenger time to take care of certain things, such as retrieving their luggage.
In addition to being available at several other US airports, this feature is now available in Vancouver, Bologna, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Milan, Nice, Paris (CDG) and Rome.
Significant growth
Uber’s own data suggests that after more than two years of reduced travel, American tourists are once again heading to Europe. The company says Uber rides by US customers in Europe are up nearly 500% year over year. Spain, France, Greece and Italy recorded the highest number of journeys made by American travellers.
Meanwhile, airport gross bookings accounted for 13% of mobility gross bookings in Q1 2022, compared to 15% pre-pandemic. Although not quite reaching pre-pandemic levels, gross airport bookings were up 166% year-over-year.
“The travel category is seeing very, very significant growth,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a March conference call. “It may be that the type of traveler who is an Uber customer, more upscale, who travels a lot, who travels for business, etc. arrives fairly quickly on the platform. »
Source: ZDNet.com