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             HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM            285

We fully intend to serve each of the points mentioned. We will be operating from a brandnew heliport in Contra Costa County in less than a month. Shortly after delivery of the second S-61 in July 1965, we expect to resume service to the lower peninsula. Helicopter landing facilities have already been installed at the Sunnyvale-Mountain View International Science Center.
We obviously intend to again serve the downtown area of San Francisco as soon as adequate heliport facilities are made available. I have been assured by city officials that a heliport in downtown San Francisco will be available in approximately 60 days.
On March 1, we inaugurated service to a new rooftop heliport in downtown Oakland. The heliport is atop a 120-foot high municipal garage with express elevator service and constitutes the first scheduled helicopter rooftop passenger service in the world.

HELIPORT CRITERIA

In the operation of our company, we are not interested in serving a community unless it is willing to provide the quality of heliport facilites [[facilities]] we feel must be made available to the public to gain their approval. Unless the community is willing to provide such facilities, it is not really interested in scheduled helicopter service.
In the matter of design and location, we have consistently encouraged planning authorities to so locate and build a municipal heliport so as to provide a facility which is socially acceptable. You cannot expect it to be used——especially at night——unless it is desirably placed. We believe that the chain of heliports which now surround the San Francisco Bay area are as socially acceptable——have the same social status——as the better airports throughout the country. They are, in fact, small airline terminals located near the heart of each community we serve. Women and children can travel by day or night with safety, comfort, and convenience to any point on our system. No passenger is ever left standing without help or without the facilities he might properly expect for his convenience. 
Some of the major features of the heliports we operate are the following: 
1. Experienced, uniformed agents and porters on duty at all times during flight operations * * * from 5:30 a.m. until midnight. 
2. Complete passenger and baggage service for all passengers. 
3. Large, paved, lighted parking areas for use by passengers and their guests. 
4. Colorful, modern, well-lighted terminal buildings with all terminal conveniences, such as passenger lounge, rest rooms, flight insurance, telephones, newspapers, vending machines, taxicabs, and immediate porter service. 
5. Convenient location, near major traffic arteries. 
SFO Helicopter acts as the fixed base operator of the heliport in each community it serves. We supervise all operations at the heliport, and provide the routine daily maintenance required. Fire-fighting equipment is kept in proper operating condition at all times. Our rental charge is based upon the traffic generated at the heliport, and is normally fixed at a rate of 25 cents per passenger. The facility is available for use by all helicopter operators, when such use will not interfere with the scheduled helicopter service provided by our company. All such operators are charged a modest landing fee, which is shared equally by the municipality and by the fixed base operator. 
The heliport facilities which we operate have cost, on the average, approximately $25,000 to construct. To justify the expenditure of this sum of money by the city, the fixed base operator should be willing to pay a reasonable rental. It is our belief that a rental charge of 25 cents per passenger will normally permit a city to recoup its expenditure within 3 to 5 years. 
In our opinion, municipal ownership with fixed base operation provided in the above manner has worked to the advantage of the municipalities involved, as well as to our own company. We heartily recommend this procedure to all communities that are now considering the establishment of urban helicopter facilities. 

INTERAIRLINE RELATIONSHIPS

Interairline services are a definite requirement in our operation. Reciprocal interline ticket and baggage agreements have been concluded with a number of the major domestic and international airlines. These agreements make it possible for a SFO Helicopter passenger to be ticketed jointly on SFO Helicopter and to any of the world's scheduled airlines, and have his baggage checked through to his destination on a single interline baggage check.
We have also become a partner to the Universal Air Travel Credit Plan. Passengers holding air travel credit plan cards can purchase travel with no further identification. Charges are made through the interline clearing house.