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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM 397

Table III-1

SCHEDULED PASSENGER ORIGINATIONS
(In Thousands)
[[5 Column Table]]
|Year|Total|CHA|LAA|NYA|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|1953|1|-|-|1|
|1954|8|-|-|8|
|1955|29|-|5|24|
|1956|64|1|20|43|
|1957|153|55|30|68|
|1958|230|109|31|90|
|1959|366|204|42|120|
|1960|490|309|39|142|
|1961|430|245|41|144|
|1962|358|93|77|188|
|1963*|463|59|149|255|

* 12 months ended September 30. 
Source: Air Carrier Traffic Statistics, CAB. 

In the second full year of operation the number of passengers incread 50 per cent. In the third, another 59 per cent and in the forth, 34 per cent. This growth was due in large part to the growth of CHA which doubled its traffic in 1959 by adding 100,000 passengers in a year. In 1960 it added a similar number for an increase of 50 per cent. by 1861, however, greater-than-anticipated shift of fixed-wing aircraft operations from Midway to O'Hare had its effect on CHA traffic with the result that traffic had dwindled sine that time. (The factors accounting for this traffic decline are developed fully in the Chicago Helicopter Airways, Inc. Renewa; Case.)

New York Airways was experienced steady growth since the beginning of its operation, with the exception of a plateau in 1961, and the rate of growth since the recent acquisition of new equipment has been substantial. The growth of Los Angeles passenger traffic was limited in the period before operation of its S-61 turbine equipment but growth since that time has been dramatic. 

Because of the temporary shutdown of the New York Airways following its accident in October, 1963 actual traffic will not reach the potential for the year indicated in previous periods. Had the accident not occurred it appears certain that the number of originated passengers would have reached 500,000 for the three carriers, even under the reduced activity of CHA. This would have represented an increase of 226 per cent over the number carried in 1957 ,the first full year of operations. 

Evidence submitted in the CHA renewal proceeding indicates that the inactive status of Midway airport for fixed-wing commercial airline traffic is of a temporary nature. In evaluating the traffic growth in terms of customer acceptance and in terms of what this growth means for the future, it is necessary to see what helicopter industry traffic would have been in 1963 had Midway continued as an active major airport for the Chicago area. Assuming (1) no acquisition of new equipemtn by CHA such as that which has resulted in the rapid growth of New York and Los Angeles traffic and (2) the continuation of the 1960 penetration rate of 4.58 per cent of total Chicago originatiosn, a conservative assumption in view of the previous growth in penetration, it is easy to see a total of at least 425,00 passengers for CHA in 1963. This does not necessarily say that traffic would have been at that level, given a balanced Midway-O'Hare operation, but that the level of passenger acceptance of helicopter service would have been lifted to 425,000 passenger a year by 1963 on the basis of the growth in fixed-wing traffic alone. 

III-6