Natalie Malligan announced as head of Uber Air Australia

Natalie Malligan has been announced as Uber Air Australia‘s head, flying Australia forward in Uber Elevate’s passenger drone ambitions. The news comes after Melbourne was added to the list of cities to be first to offer Uber Air flights along with Dallas and Los Angeles.

Natalie Malligan announced as head of Uber Air Australia

Earlier this week Uber Australia announced in a press release that Natalie Malligan will become the head of Uber Air Australia. Malligan will head up Uber’s plan for air transport in Australia.

Hopefully, this move means Uber Air’s move into Australia will for sure be a successful one and will help to ensure the flights take off on time.

The first flights are expected to take off in 2020 and be fully operational and open to the public by 2023.

Uber is expanding its usual operations in the ride-sharing and food-delivery industries with its drone delivery complementing Uber Eats along with Uber Air. Uber Air hopes to transport people by air in a similar way to the current ride-sharing service available by car.

Uber Elevate’s global head Eric Allison shared what the future of transport will be like and the commute-time savings Uber Air will offer to its passengers.

As major cities grow, the heavy reliance on private car ownership will not be sustainable. Uber Air holds enormous potential to help reduce road congestion. For example, the 19-kilometer journey from the CBD to Melbourne airport can take anywhere from 25 minutes to around an hour by car in peak hour, but with Uber Air, this will take around 10 minutes. — Eric Allison, Uber Elevate Global Head

Take a look at Uber’s other drone projects:

• Uber Air and ModalAI complete first drone delivery
• Bell Helicopter and Uber show taxi drone at CES 2018
• Uber plans to deliver fast food by drone starting this summer

Stay in touch!

If you’d like to stay up to date with all the latest drone news, scoops, rumors, and reviews, then follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, or sign up for our daily email newsletter that goes out every weekday at 6 p.m. ET.

Buy your next drone directly from manufacturers such as DJI, Parrot, or Yuneec, or retailers like Adorama, Amazon, B&H, BestBuy, DroneNerds, or eBay. By using our links, we will make a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for helping DroneDJ grow!

Photo: Uber Elevate