Uber and above: hot air balloon rides offered for booking in Turkey visitor hotspot Cappadocia by ride-hailing service

Want to avoid the queues to see Cappadocia’s cave cities and churches from above? Call Uber for a place on a hot-air balloon flight. Sunrise trips cost US$159

Uber wants to be ‘the operating system for everyday life’, its chief executive explains, and the balloon service is part of that

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Hot air balloons fly over Cappadocia, Turkey, a popular tourist destination known for its volcanic landscape and cave cities. Places on balloon flights are now bookable through Uber. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 1:45pm, 24 Oct 2023Updated: 2:17pm, 24 Oct 2023

Uber will let users book hot air balloon rides over Turkey’s Cappadocia region, the latest step in the company’s push to expand from taxis and ride-hailing into travel and tourism.

App users can pay €150 (US$159) to reserve one of 20 places on a 1.5-hour sunrise flight 3,000 feet (914 metres) above the Unesco-listed volcanic Cappadocian landscape, famous for its cave cities and churches dating back to the 10th century, the company says.

The area is a major tourist attraction in Turkey, with around 10 per cent of the country’s 44.6 million foreign visitors in 2022 staying there, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This year, Turkey aims to attract a record 60 million tourists.

The balloon service is part of Uber’s vision to grow into what chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi has called “the operating system for everyday life”.

Hot air balloons flying over Cappadocia. For US$159, Uber will reserve visitors a spot on a sunrise flight over the volcanic region in central Turkey. Photo: Xinhua

It has launched new travel options mostly in international markets outside the United States, offering three-wheeler tuk-tuk rides in India, seasonal boat services in Greece and flight bookings in Britain.