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430        HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM




   13. Do you think that air travelers generally are 
       aware of helicopter service at cities where it 
       is available?

 [[2 Column Table]]
| YES | 41.7% |
| NO | 37.2 |
| DON'T KNOW | 21.1 |
|   | 100.0% |

This question may indicate that the carriers could do more to promote their services although it was not the intent of the question to measure the effectiveness of their marketing programs. Considering the limited scale of operation which the carriers have had, the results are no surprising. At the same time, the returns indicate that the market for helicopter services is far from being saturated.

   14. What is your occupation?

[[2 Column Table]]
| Business executive or manager | 44.2% |
| Government (federal, state, local) | 4.3 |
| Armed Forces | 2.6 |
| Professional or technical | 30.9 |
| Salesman | 5.9 |
| Housewife | 4.4|
| Other | 7.7 |
|   | 100.0% |

   15. What is your income?

[[2 Column Table]]
| Under $6,000 | 7.8%|  
| $6,000-$12,000 | 31.0|
| $12,000-$20,000 | 37.3|
| $20,000 and over | 23.9|
|    | 100.0% |

The returns from Questions 14 and 15 combined indicate that the users of helicopter services, like trunkline and local service air passengers, are people at levels of responsibility and salary where the saving of travel time is important.

   16. What are your principal reasons for using 
       helicopter service?

   17. Have you any suggestions to improve helicopter 
       service?

The responses to these questions were not machine tabulated but an inspection indicated that "speed" and "convenience" were given the most often as the reasons for using helicopter service. Suggestions for improvements did not fall into any specific patterns although "reduction in noise and vibration" and "increase in schedules" would probably describe the largest categories.

In evaluating the returns of the survey in terms of the future outlook for the helicopter carriers, we would say that they produce a pattern that looks promising for future expansions in the market. Present passengers have a favorable impression of helicopter service, even in the present stage of development, and they indicate that they intend to make increasing use of the "speed" and "convenience" features. These are the prime ingredients which helicopter service can provide to the intracity or intraurban portion of the air passenger's trip. The survey indicates further that the helicopter service is being used as part of the US national air transportation system and not as local transportation in the cities where it is now provided.

 


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