By Andrew Healey in London
US Helicopter is to expand its New York City helicopter shuttle to include La Guardia airport as well as Kennedy following strong demand for the service since its launch in April.
US Helicopter president and chief executive Jerry Murphy says the complany also plans to operate from the East 34th Street heliport from mid-July. “Once up, we’ll serve Kennedy from E-34th as well as the Wall Street/Downtown Manhattan heliport. The next ramp-up will be La Guardia from both heliports and I would expect that to happen in late August.” The final pieces in the picture – connecting Newark airport with the heliport at West 30th Street – are expected to be in place by the end of 2006.
Murphy says he is pleased with the traffic numbers and a high volume of repeat business. Although reluctant to reveal exact numbers, he claims the volume improves each month. “Passengers predominately book through our website, then there’s a roughly equal balance between calls to the reservations office and walk-up traffic.” American Airlines passengers can clear Transportation Security Administration checks at the heliports and be flown to its terminal at Kennedy: others have to go through the procedure twice.
US Helicopter operates four Sikorsky S-76Bs and has four new C++ variants on order. Murphy says: “The C++ [with the Turbomeca Arriel 2S2] offers better economy over such short legs.”
Source: Flight International
