Grab eyes helicopter services in Indonesia

Grab has revealed that it is eyeing helicopter services which targets executive users living in Jakarta and the cities around it. According to Grab Indonesia marketing director Mediko Azwar in a statement to The Jakarta Post, the company is currently looking for the right business strategy. Marketing has reached out to Grab for comment.This may also extend towards areas with mining, which Azwar explained, have a demand for helicopter services. Grab managing director Ridzki Kramadibrat has also promised that Grab would only work with licensed flight operators who are trusted in the market.To express its intentions, Grab recently invited potential customers and partners for a helicopter ride in Jakarta, working in collaboration with Lippo Group, a flight operating company. It provided a 15-minute helicopter ride to allow participants to partake in the experience, in conjunction with its fifth anniversary celebrations.For the introduction of the new service, the ride-hailing company also sent in-app notifications to selected users with the most number of trips a year to receive a chance to a helicopter ride. This was announced in a press statement.Most recently, Grab entered into an agreement to acquire Kudo, a leading O2O (online to offline) e-commerce platform in Indonesia. Upon closing, the Kudo team and platform will be integrated with Grab’s proprietary mobile payments platform, GrabPay. GrabPay’s reach across Indonesia’s major cities will complement Kudo’s strong presence across Indonesia’s smaller cities and rural areas.Meanwhile, it also appointed Sandeep Khanna as its new regional lead for people and organisational development. In a statement to Marketing, Khanna said the role is a newly created one and he will be reporting to Ong Chin Yin, head of people at Grab.Read also: Why Grab isn’t intimidated by the 57 upcoming SMRT trains