Montauk Sky is Blade’s less expensive way to fly to the Hamptons

Blade, the luxury helicopter that will bring you to and from the Hamptons, is stepping away from its upscale brand to bring back Montauk Sky—an aviation brand operated by brothers Raymond and Schuyler Tilney that brought lobsters from Montauk to Manhattan restaurants back in the 1940s.

Eventually, the brothers started charging $5 a head for their friends to snag a ride on the aircraft for a flight to the city. Blade wants to bring back that no-frills way of flying into 2018 with nostalgic branding and cost-effective practices, including opting for a plane instead of a helicopter since helicopters are more expensive to operate.

For a flight from Teterboro, New Jersey to Montauk, seats start at $345. The flight is much less expensive than the Manhattan to East Hampton route via Blade—which start at $795 for a one-way seat.

While Blade flights are known for their sippy-cup wine glasses, the Montauk Sky description reads:

Rosé? No way. Expect ice boxes of beer, bags of chips, and great music waiting onboard. Enjoy the Montauk Sky sensibility, a throwback to a simpler time but using advanced jet engine aircraft flown by our seasoned operators.

Flights on the Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft will commence on June 22, and Blade will even offer ground transportation between Manhattan and Teterboro to the first six people to book per flight on Montauk Sky. The June 29 to July 1 trip is already sold out and has a waitlist.

According to the online booking agent, flights are scheduled to take just 40 minutes.

While a seat each way costs $345, round trip tickets are required, which will cost a total of about $750 once taxes and fees are tacked on to the bill.

Rob Wiesenthal from Blade told Curbed that Montauk Sky will hopefully help to broaden the market for more people to fly. Getting from New Jersey to Montauk could take four hours—and sometimes even longer—so to shorten that trip from four hours to 40 minutes in a cost-effective manner is important to Wiesenthal’s mission with the brand. He’s also expecting to open the market to people from New Jersey by flying out of the Teterboro Airport.

Wiesenthal told Curbed, “You shouldn’t feel like you need to get dressed up to go on Montauk Sky. It’s not about the Instagram. It’s about getting there.”

For tips and corrections, please email hamptons@curbed.com

• Blade CEO has new, no-frills way to get you to the Hamptons [New York Post]
• Montauk Sky [Blade]