The annual Cannes Film Festival is going on from May 14th to May 25th, bringing together many of the world’s most well-known (and soon to be well-known) actors, directors, costume designers and other film industry players. Despite ongoing drama in Paris and in France as a whole, Uber announced last Friday that users in Paris & Cannes will have access to an on-demand private jet service between May 12th and May 18th.
The on-demand transportation service has teamed up with GOODWILL Private Jets, allowing users to select the “UBERJET” option directly from their mobile app or mobile web interface, after which users will be contacted by phone in order to finish the order. Once in Cannes, users can make use of Uber’s service, which launched a ‘pop-up service’ in Cannes last year.
Uber continues to test a variety of transportation & logistics services – ice cream trucks, flower delivery, and most recently, bicycle messengers. As the company has grown, it has become clear that Uber will not restrict itself to disrupting the taxi market. This latest foyer into the on-demand private jet market resembles BlackJet, a service that was once hailed as the “Uber for Private Jet,” raising money from Will Smith, Ashton Kutcher, Jay-Z & more – that company has since been grounded, with one former employee citing the inability to make such a model profitable as the core issue. For Cannes, Uber is merely partnering with a 3rd party service – I don’t see them making private jet travel a regular occurrence.