For the first time in over 20 years, New Yorkers are to have access to an hourly helicopter service between Manhattan and Kennedy airport. Flights are scheduled to begin on 13 March, when privately owned start-up US Helicopters puts three leased Sikorsky S-76s into service from the downtown heliport near Wall Street. Under an interline deal with American Airlines, the services, which will operate between 07:00 and 19:00, will land airside at American’s domestic terminal.
This will be followed on 13 April with the launch of an S-76 service to Kennedy from the East 34th Street heliport – a route once served by Pan Am in the 1970s and 1980s. Service from both heliports to New York LaGuardia airport will begin in June.
Key to US Helicopter’s business plan is an agreement with the US Transportation Security Administration to open security facilities at the heliports, a move that allows passengers to bypass Kennedy’s screening and baggage checking and receive boarding passes for both rotary- and fixed-wing segments of their journey.
DARREN SHANNON / WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International
