The ride-hailing service Uber on Wednesday announced the expansion of its “Reserve” feature into six more Indian cities, allowing users the opportunity to pre-book their rides anywhere between 30 minutes and 90 days in advance.According to a release, Uber Reserve will now accept cash payments and give users access to pre-scheduled rides. Kochi, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Guwahati are the six new additions. With the addition of these cities, the reserve option is now available in 13 cities, which include Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kochi, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow and Guwahati.As per the official release of Uber, “Reserve now appears as a new option in the latest version of the Uber app and is available on Uber Premier, Uber Intercity, Uber Rentals and Uber XL.”Reportedly, the new feature is developed by the company to keep the pre-planned travel needs of the riders, including work trips, airport drops, doctor visits, and other scheduled appointments. “Riders can pre-book their rides with Reserve, giving them greater security, assurance, and control over their journey. In addition, Reserve gives drivers greater options between on-demand and scheduled trips,” according to Prabhjeet Singh, president of Uber India and South Asia.Uber signs MoU with AAIEarlier this month, expanding its services to the infinite riders, a senior official of Uber confirmed that Uber has recently signed a pact with Airport Authorities of India (AAI) to build its cab zone across their airports as it sees the aviation sector as one of the key drivers of its business. The President of Uber India and South Asia said that the airports trips have seen 100 percent growth year-on-year between January and February. And one in every 10 trips on the platform is an airport trip.Taking to Twitter, the Airport Authority of India also confirmed the news saying, “AAI has signed an MoU with @Uber_India for providing App-based car aggregator facility to passengers at all #AAI Airports. Sh.Sanjay Jain, Executive Director (Commercial), AAI and Sh. Nitish Bhushan, Director, Central Operations, Uber India signed the MoU today.”AAI has signed an MoU with @Uber_India for providing App-based car aggregator facility to passengers at all #AAI Airports. Sh.Sanjay Jain, Executive Director (Commercial), AAI and Sh. Nitish Bhushan, Director, Central Operations, Uber India signed the MoU today. pic.twitter.com/KU4kc7DB9O— Airports Authority of India (@AAI_Official) April 10, 2023The President of Uber India said that Uber Zone enables the company to offer specific pickup and drop-off locations, implement technology to aid users in finding Uber Zones, and offer driver partners convenient parking, among other things. Because many airports are situated further from city centres, he claimed that airport excursions often have a higher value.“Travel to and from airports accounts for nearly 17 percent of the total revenue we generate in the nation, demonstrating how crucial this market is to us,” he added. He also highlighted that the percentage is now increasing, within the first three months of 2023, more than 30 lakh riders have used the Uber service for the airport.According to the information, The Softbank-backed corporation operates in over 120 cities, and AAI oversees about 137 airports nationwide. In several cities where Uber operates, there are airports administered by the AAI.The firm currently offers ride services to all airports, according to Uber, but the arrangement allowed it to create Uber Zones on airport property. Currently, the corporation has partnerships with 12 airports that are run by both government and commercial organisations.The official also asserted that the MoU which is signed with the Airport Authority of India, includes all AAI-managed airports, but operations across all of them will happen in the planned manner. Reportedly, both organisation is jointly working on the network mapping and identifying the locations that need to be prioritised. In addition, he also said that MoU will accelerate the contracting out of the services and teams are on the grounds to manage the operations.
