很快，乘坐飛機上班將不再是富豪的專利。巴西圣保羅計劃在2025年率先使用純電動空中的士搭載通勤乘客。據稱，“打飛的”費用將被壓到和優步出租車相近的水平。

The skies over Latin America’s largest city are set to witness a futuristic aerospace revolution after the Brazilian airline Gol struck a deal that could see it ferry commuters around S?o Paulo in hundreds of low-cost zero-emission electric air taxis.

拉丁美洲最大城市圣保羅的上空將會見證一場未來主義航空革命。巴西戈爾航空公司日前達成了一項協議，將用數百架低成本零排放的電動空中的士搭載當地的通勤族。

Dómhnal Slattery, chief executive of the Dublin-based firm Avolon, which will provide the aircraft to Gol and recently placed an order for 500 of the aircraft from their British manufacturer, admitted helicopters were the “domain of the ultra wealthy”. Nowhere is that more true than in Brazil’s economic capital, where South America’s super-rich have long used them to hop between luxury beach properties, ranches and heavily guarded compounds.

向戈爾航空供應空中的士的都柏林公司阿沃隆最近剛從他們的英國生產商那里訂購了500架飛機。阿沃隆的首席執行官多姆納爾·斯萊特瑞承認，直升機過去是“超級富豪的專屬”。在巴西的經濟中心圣保羅更是如此，長時間以來南美的超級富豪一直乘坐直升機在豪華海邊度假屋、農場和守衛森嚴的住宅區之間往返。

But the Avolon boss claimed the introduction of VA-X4 eVTOLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft to S?o Paulo would be a gamechanger for commuters once the taxis, which look like a futuristic cross between a helicopter and a glider, were delivered in late 2024 or 2025.

但是阿沃隆的首席執行官稱，圣保羅引進VA-X4電動垂直起降飛機對通勤族而言將是改天換地的變革。這款未來風格的空中的士外形介于直升機和滑翔機之間，將于2024年底或2025年交付使用。

"Our basic estimate at the moment is that the operating cost here for this aircraft will be the equivalent of $1 per passenger over a 25-mile trip,” Slattery told the Financial Times. “We think we can get the cost of this down to the equivalent of an Uber ride, equivalent to downtown Manhattan to JFK.”

斯萊特瑞告訴《金融時報》說：“據我們目前粗略估算，這款飛機在圣保羅的運營成本相當于25英里范圍內每名乘客1美元（約合人民幣6元）。我們認為，我們可以把成本壓到和優步出租車差不多的水平，相當于從曼哈頓市中心到肯尼迪國際機場的打車費。”

Few cities are crying out for such a revolution more than S?o Paulo, a sprawling metropolis with more than 12 million inhabitants and choked by a fleet of 8.6m vehicles.

像圣保羅這樣急需出行方式變革的城市不多，圣保羅是一座無序擴張的大都市，居住人口高達1200多萬，車輛多達860萬。

In the late 1990s, the congestion became so bad in what is now the world’s fifth biggest city after Tokyo, Delhi, Seoul and Shanghai that authorities were forced to introduce a number plate rotation system for vehicles.

上世紀90年代末，圣保羅的交通堵塞變得十分嚴重，迫使政府引進了車牌尾號限行制度。圣保羅如今是世界第五大城市，僅次于東京、德里、首爾和上海。

Stephen Fitzpatrick, the head of the British aerospace manufacturer that produces the aircraft, Vertical Aerospace, said the flying taxis would be ideal for Brazil’s biggest city and will “transform how we travel around high population density cities that are clogged with traffic”.

這款飛機的英國飛機制造商垂直航空科技公司總裁史蒂芬·菲茨帕特里克說，這款空中的士非常適合圣保羅，而且會“變革我們在人口密度高、交通擁堵城市的出行方式”。

The Bristol-based Vertical Aerospace was founded in 2016 and promises to pioneer “a new era in vertical transport”.

位于布里斯托爾的垂直航空科技公司創立于2016年，承諾將率先開創“垂直交通的新時代”。

"We’ll be looking to Asia after S?o Paulo,” Avolon’s chief commercial officer, Paul Geaney, told Reuters.

阿沃隆的首席商務官保羅·吉尼告訴路透社說：“繼圣保羅之后，我們將向亞洲進軍。”

英文來源：衛報

翻譯&編輯：丹妮