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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM     393

Passenger Transportation Role

The role of the helicopter carriers in the US air transportation system is related primarily to their passenger-carrying capabilities.  This does not imply that their services have not been beneficial to the US government in the carriage of the mail or to shippers and receivers of property.  The fact remains, however, that the nation's air transportation system presently depends primarily on passenger revenues and the bulk of its operations is geared to the transportation requirements of people rather than of property.  Consequently, the operations of the helicopter carriers and their role in the country's air transportation system are viewed in this study primarily in terms of their passenger transportation role.

Although experiments in the carriage of mail and property by helicopter were certificated by the CAB as early as 1947 and some noncertificated passenger operations were conducted at about that time, recognition of the passenger-carrying role of helicopters was not given in certificated form until 1951.  In July of that year the certificate of Los Angeles Airways was amended and renewed with authority to carry persons in addition to property and mail.  In December of the same year New York Airways was authorized to engage in the air transportation of persons, property, and mail in the New York City metropolitan area.  The certificate of Helicopter Air Service, Inc in the Chicago area was also amended and renewed with the authority to carry passengers in addition to mail and property.  In finding that passenger operations by helicopter were in the public interest, the CAB referred to the advantages which would accrue to air passengers through the operation of helicopters in congested urban areas.  The role of the helicopter in this regard was expressed by the Board in its 1951 decision in the Los Angeles Airways Certificate Renewal proceeding.

"One of the great handicaps under which air transportation has labored since its beginning has been the necessity for locating airports considerably removed from the built-up portions of large metropolitan areas.  This results in the air passenger's having to make long, time-consuming ground trips at each end of his trip.  For distances up to 200 miles by air, the time lost because of terminal surface travel to and from the airports has been a great deterrent to the penetration of the short-haul traffic market.  So much time is consumed in getting to and from airports that the advantage of air travel is often lost because, in contrast to air travel, surface transportation usually delivers the passenger closer to the center of the city of his destination.  The helicopter is capable of providing a relatively rapid service between the airport and major points in the metropolitan area served, and could minimize the handicap of air transportation in the terminal handling of passengers.  Such results would naturally redound to the benefit of the Government in that the amount of mail payments to air carriers would be decreased as a result of the generation of new traffic.  Moreover, an increase in the use of airmail, bringing greater returns to the Post Office Department, may be expected."

The metropolitan areas selected for helicopter operations are the largest in the nation and their airports constitute major elements in our air transportation system.  Passengers enplaning at thos airports account for 25 per cent of total commercial passengers enplaned at all airports in the United States.  Because of their importance to the economic fabric of the nation, these three metropolitan areas represent the destination of passengers in nearly all cities in the country which are certificated for scheduled air service.  In this sense, then, the airports located in the nation's three largest metropolitan areas are truly "national" rather than merely "local" in nature.

Because of equipment and financing problems, the helicopter carriers were not able to activate their passenger-carrying authority until some time after it was issued.  New York Airways began passenger service on July 8, 1953; Los Angeles Airways inaugurated service on November 22, 1954 and Chicago Helicopter Airways on November 1, 1956.  The year 1957, therefore, marked the first full year of passenger operations in all three of the metropolitan areas which had been selected as developmental sites for this new form of passenger transportation.

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