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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM        317

adequate ground transportation and, of course, no helicopter service here. Would you favor expansion of helicopter service to such cities as Washington and similar cities which need it?
  Senator DIRKSEN. They should have the same opportunity that New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago had. I recall Senator Russell mentioned the possibility that at some point Atlanta might want to have helicopter service.
  I am not sufficiently familiar with the whole traffic pattern all over the country to indicate at what points, but they should not be precluded from the same opportunity that we have had.
  Senator MONRONEY. Furthermore, we have nearly $130 million invested in Dulles International Airport, one of the finest airports in the world, which is going practically unused because of the difficulty of ground transportation. Certainly it is worth a trial at least to see if rapid transportation by helicopter couldn’t provide greater utilization of Dulles and Friendship. These are widely separated and sometimes you need to connect Friendship flights with Dulles, and certainly with Washington National. We have an airport complex which needs servicing in the fourth largest traffic area in the world, and certainly it is the time that we get busy and do something about that.
  (The full text of the prepared statement follows:)
  Senator DIRKSEN. It is a great pleasure for me to appear before this committee to present my views on the necessity of continuing the federally-supported helicopter air service program.
  In my State of Illinois, we have the world's largest airport--O'Hare International Airport--where over 2 million passengers will be handled during 1965. This great airport is presently operating in excess of its designed capacity, and yet it is still growing at a tremendous rate. At the present growth rate of air passengers in Chicago, we will have to be prepared to handle an annual total of over 30 million passengers by 1970, just 5 years away.
  Now I think it is plain to see that we cannot possibly handle this vast amount of traffic at only one airport. It is my understanding that the city government in Chicago is presently working with the airlines to transfer at least 25 percent of their schedules to Chicago's Midway Airport in order to relieve the growing air and ground congestion at O'Hare and to better serve the more than 3 million people who live south of Midway.
  I have discussed our airport problem with you because it points out in bold relief the vital need we have for helicopter service in Chicago.
  As the Chairman knows, Chicago has long been the transportation hub of our great country. This is true of our air service as well as our rail service.
  As an example, over 50 percent of the air travelers who use the Chicago airports are "connecting passengers." In other words, they are changing from one airplane to another in order to complete their air journey. Therefore, as Chicago's air traffic increases and Midway Airport becomes further reactivated, this connecting problem will manifest itself to a point where Chicago Helicopter Airways will have a public demand for its services which will once again make it the leader in the field of helicopter transportation.
  During recent years, when Midway was still active, I had the opportunity to use the helicopter service many times in order to make