Viewing page 40 of 507

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

32     HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM

Mr. BOYD. We certainly think there would have to be some fare experimentation up in some areas and down in others. 

Senator MONRONEY. You need to get people used to riding in the helicopters. Once they ride in them, they love them. So many people fear them because they are an unusual type of air transportation that they haven't yet engage in. It is kind of like aviation, don't you think, in the early days when everyone was signing his will and kissing his wife goodby [[goodbye]] for the last time before taking off.
 
I remember the couple rate - husband and wife rate - was to encourage the wife to fly so she would see it wasn't quite as dangerous as she thought it was, so that she would encourage her husband to use air, rather than discourage him. 

Mr. BOYD. I am sure that a great deal more in the way of education has to be done. Of course one of the things that we would like to see accomplished, through this phaseout, is to give the carrier management some idea of what its future is. Because for the past 2 or 3 years they have spent the vast majority of their time figuring out ways and means of survival, without having the time to devote to expansion. 

Senator MONRONEY. Certainly it presents a problem - $75 million of airport aid, and I think $126 million or $136 million for Dulles alone. You are faced in New York City with an absolute strangulation of air traffic because of the placement of the Kennedy Airport and Teterboro and Newark and La Guardia, all those with a sort of a crazy bird cage flight approach which lends itself to very hazardous flying and the most difficult problem of air traffic control to keep this traffic separated. 

Undoubtedly it will be absolutely necessary within the very near future, if this traffic pattern is to be safely maintained; that New York will have to get off dead center and go out and acquire itself another major airport, which of course will be farther distant even than Kennedy International Airport from downtown. 

Mr. BOYD. One of the fine things about the helicopter is that it can operate inside the existing air traffic routes. It need not interfere with the orderly flow of traffic on the part of the large transports. 

Senator MONRONEY. I will yield to Senator Lausche. 

Senator LAUSCHE. Do I understand you to say that upon the filing of an application, while it is pending, the applicant becomes entitled to the necessary moneys to fulfills his needs? 

Mr. BOYD. An application for renewal. 

Senator LAUSCHE. For renewal? 

Mr. BOYD. Yes, sir.

Senator LAUSCE. But in an organizational application, the applicant becomes entitled to no compensation until it is approved? 

Mr. BOYD. That is correct, sir. 

Senator LAUSCHE. It is therefore your judgment and that of the Board that each of these holders of licenses are entitled, in accordance with their needs, to maintain efficient and safe service? 

Mr. BOYD. Yes, sir. 

Senator LAUSCHE. Regardless of whether the money is appropriated or not? 

Mr. BOYD. Yes, sir. 

Senator LAUSCHE. So long as these holders have a legal license, the Government is obligated to reimburse them?