Throwback Thursday: Back to the future, Bay Area air taxi

The technology may be different, but the concept is the same: Using aircraft as taxis to fly over busy Bay Area byways and highways.

Recent media attention has focused on an effort by Joby Aviation to get air taxis up and off the ground by late 2027 or in 2028. 

But it was 65 years ago in 1961 that San Francisco-Oakland Helicopter Airlines launched air taxi service linking San Francisco and Oakland, and later flying to Marin, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties.

"The helicopter trip to San Francisco International (from Oakland) will take nine minutes and will cost $1.25," supporter Ken Fraser boasted to the Berkeley Gazette in November 1961. "This compares to a cab trip of an hour which costs $15."

The operation flew Sikorsky helicopters. The service offered flights of between eight and 13 minutes across the bay, with fares ranging from $1.25 and $5 in 1961. ($5 in 1961 is equal to $54 in 2026.)

The service had initial success and by early April 1963 it optimistically projected as many as a half-million annual passengers by 1967. It also carried mail and even added nautical service at one point, which had hovercraft plying the bay.

One helicopter trip between Oakland and San Francisco was documented on a home movie that can be found on YouTube.

By November 1967 the operation announced expansion plans, though it had to suspend operations to the San Francisco Ferry Terminal because the pier it used was deemed unsafe.

At its peak in 1968, the company operated three, 26-passenger helicopters over a 102-mile route system, carrying 320,000 passengers annuallywith more than 100 flights daily. Heliports were at San Francisco International Airport, downtown San Francisco, Oakland International Airport, Concord, Berkeley, Marin City and Palo Alto. 

But by the summer of 1970, the business filed for bankruptcy, and cut service to all locations, retaining San Francisco and Oakland. Owners blamed the downturn in aviation for the bankruptcy filing. 

In the early 1970s it promoted helicopters as a way to get to airplane flights at San Francisco International Airport, but by the mid-1970s the entire operation was out of business. Despite its demise, the service had an impact. In 1976, the director of aviation at Oakland International Airport grumbled that the helicopter service cost his airport 165,000 passengers a year.