JFK Airport Helicopter Service Opens
By RICHARD PYLE
NEW YORK – A helicopter commuter line – the nation’s first in more than two decades – made its debut on Monday, offering passengers bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport a way to bypass street gridlock.
U.S. Helicopter Corp.’s airport shuttle between Wall Street and the American Airlines terminal at JFK takes eight minutes. The one-way cost is $139 now and $20 more after May 1.
Jerry Murphy, president of US Helicopter, told a news conference at the American Airlines terminal that US Helicopter plans to expand its service to LaGuardia and Newark (N.J.) Liberty airports and the 34th Street heliport later this year.
The United States has had no scheduled helicopter commuter airline since 1979, when New York Airways filed for bankruptcy. That pioneering company had operated for 25 years, using a helipad atop the 59-story Pan Am Building, now the Met Life Building.
On May 16, 1977, structural failure caused a helicopter to tip over on the helipad. Its spinning rotor blades snapped off and killed four passengers waiting to board; flying debris fatally injured a woman on the ground two blocks away. The rooftop helipad was shut down as a result.
—
On the Net:
US Helicopter: http://www.flyush.com