After acquiring airport concierge platform Solve last year, chauffeured service network Blacklane's platform now sells the arrival, departure and transfer services, which help travelers clear security, customs and immigration quickly and help with baggage handling.
They're available at more than 500 airports around the world for $100 each, regardless of the airport, said co-founder and CEO Jens Wohltorf, and offerings are consistent across the footprint. "There are many legacy players around in this industry that serve a pretty impressive network of global locations, but pricing, as it was with the limousine industry, was not transparent," he said. "There's a lot of fine print and variation in the standards."
Flat pricing also will cut out many of the markups implemented by aggregators, many of which increased the cost several times over, Wohltorf said. Travelers also can book lounge access in the networks for a flat $50 per visit, he said.
Chauffeured service bookings are made through a separate section of the Blacklane site. Over the coming months, Blacklane will integrate them, according to Wohltorf.
Blacklane Adds Sustainable Class
Blacklane also has added a ground transportation booking option: a green class on Tesla Model X and Model S electric vehicles. Blacklane plans to have launched service in early August in:
- Adelaide, Australia
- Amsterdam
- Auckland, Australia
- Austin, Texas
- Basel, Switzerland
- Birmingham, U.K.
- Denver
- Dublin
- Edinburgh
- Hong Kong
- Honolulu
- Lisbon
- London
- Milan
- Montreal
- Munich
- Paris
- Phoenix
- Sydney
- Zurich
Prices will be higher than Blacklane's standard business class, as they are oriented with the cost of the vehicles, Wohltorf said. "We see more and more corporate customers asking us about [sustainability] activities, and in tender materials, we see more and more paragraphs about carbon offsets and electric vehicles," he said. "It's a good thing for the world: the movement away from diesel- and fuel-powered cars into electric ones."