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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM   437

The need to apply the benefits of air transportation to the intracity portion of the total journey arises from many factors. As air travel has grown it has been necessary to build additional airports to provide required runway and terminal airspace capacity. In large cities this has meant that airports had to be built at outlying sites and, as surface traffic congestion has increased with population growth, it has taken longer to make the journey between the downtown area and the airport. The combined effect of these factors over the past 15 years can be seen in a comparison of published ground transportation times today with those of 1948. Times are shown for the five top-ranking metropolitan areas which account for one-third of the nation's domestic air traffic. In 1948 nearly all of the domestic air traffic generated in each of these areas was handled at a single airport in the area. Ground times shown are those shown by the airlines in the Official Airline Guide. Although it is not made clear in every case, the published times contain some allowance for airport check-in.

Table III-37

PUBLISHED GROUND TRANSPORTATION TIMES
1963 vs. 1948

[[5 columned table]]

| Downtown Area | 1948 Airport | 1948 Time | 1963 Airport | 1963 Time |

|---|---|---|---|---|

| New York | La Guardia | :25 | La Guardia | :50 |

|   |   |   | N.Y. Int'l | :75[[footnote callout]]1[[/footnote callout]] |

|   |   |   | Newark | :50[[footnote callout]]2[[/footnote callout]] |

| Chicago | Midway | :50 |   |   |

|   |   |   | O'Hare | :70[[footnote callout]]2[[/footnote callout]] |

| Los Angeles | Municipal | :40 | L.A. Int'l | :60 |

| Washington | National | :35 | National | :35 |

|   |   |   | Dulles Int'l | :70 |

| San Francisco | Municipal | :50 | International | :60 |
[[/5 columned table]]

[[footnote]]1 Add 15 minutes for flight departures between 3:30 pm and 8:00 pm[[/footnote]]
[[footnote]]2 Add 15 minutes for flight departures between 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm[[/footnote]]

Note: Allowances for additional times at New York are those published by the airlines. The lack thereof in the table for other cities does not imply that travel time is no greater at peak periods.

Source: Official Airline Guide.

As a result of the lengthened ground transportation time, the benefits of air transportation on the airborne segment have been dissipated, in part, over the entire passenger journey. The decreases in airborne time have been substantial over the last 15 years. In 1948 it required 11 hours, 45 minutes of scheduled airport-to-airport flight time from New York to Los Angeles. Today, the time is 5 hours, 35 minutes. When the supersonic transport is flying in the 1970's, the time will be 2 hours, 20 minutes for a Mach 3 aircraft or 2 hours, 40 minutes for a Mach 2.2 aircraft. Therefore it will require about the same amount of time for the 30 miles of surface travel getting to and from airports in New York and Los Angeles as it will to fly the 2,500 miles between the two airports. (If present airports will not accommodate the noise and sonic boom problems involved in supersonic aircraft operations, this may understate the case.)

III-46

Transcription Notes:
1-30-2021: Transcribed table, completed transcription and marking for review