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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM     349

One of the considerations that is important to the mail rate is whether or not the raise in the rate will result in a cessation either in whole or in part of the mail tendered by the Post Office Department.  In other words, if at $2.58 a ton-mile the carrier were to receive 10 tons of mail, but at $5.00 it will receive only 1 ton of mail, in the long run the carrier would not benefit by it.

Senator MONRONEY. I know, but the testimony that caused me to want to look into this was the testimony by the helicopter lines that if they had a full planeload they could still not afford to carry it at $2.58 a ton-mile, for example, would give a ton lift, which would be about all that I would imagine the smaller helicopters could carry, or bigger ones, I guess.  That would be under $6.00 for 2 tons.  I am sure that would be about all the load that could possibly be lifted even in a 25-place helicopter.

Thus you would have $6.00 a mile for a trip to the airport.  Unless there was enough mail stacked up to permit the helicopter to carry a full 2-ton load back, that would be all the revenue it could earn on a round trip, say between Kennedy International and downtown New York.  This would not, as you can see, pay the expenses, $60.00 a 10-mile trip, providing it was a 1-way trip of 2 tons.

I quite agree, I think the figures we had for the trip to and from the airports, as I recall, was about $125 a trip.

Have there been any hearings held so that the individual helicopter operators could testify, including figures supporting their claim that the rate that is offered by the Post Office Department is an uneconomic rate?

Mr. SCHNEIDER. No, sir; Mr. Chairman.  The case that was instituted by the San Francisco petition has not been set down yet in order of priority by the Board.  I checked before I came here this morning and the Board has under active consideration the question of trying to set the matter down for hearing in the immediate future.

Senator MONRONEY. Cannot they expedite these cases when they think there is some degree of urgency to it?

Mr. SCHNEIDER. I am sure that the Board will try to.

Senator MONRONEY. I imagine one of the things that will develop is if the rate went up the Post Office Department might feel it necessary to cut out the service, or maybe to use it only on a standby basis, which would not be very economic.

Mr. BELEN. One of our problems again is that we could use it only if it was accessible.  We did use it on top of the building in Los Angeles and Chicago.  But then passengers were excluded because they couldn't get through the building.

We even evaluated the Pan American Building in New York where they have a heliport to see if it was available.  There we couldn't get the mail out.  You get down to a single commodity.  If you do that, then all costs, including the subsidy, would have to be charged into that.  If anything like the subsidy rates shown here, it would be fantastic.

Senator MONRONEY. I wonder if it would be possible.  Handling it at the other end would be up to the post office.  While it may not be put at the same dock, it would be at the airport, and certainly dispatching of mail could pick up, as it does pick up airmail sacks