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EXTENSION OF HELICOPTER SERVICE TO OTHER CITIES

While the existing helicopter services make an important contribution to our national air transportation system, we do not believe that helicopter service need be or should be confined to these areas. New York Airways has sought authority to serve the Washington-Baltimore area and there are other cities which are logical candidates for early inauguration of scheduled helicopter service.

More important, it is the work that the presently subsidized certificated helicopter carriers have done over the years in terms of equipment improvement, training personnel in the unique and exacting requirements of vertical lift operations, the development of downtown rooftop operations and, most recently, in the attainment of a feasible and practicable IFR system for helicopters that is now making it possible for helicopter service to be actively planned for other cities. 

The experience of San Francisco/Oakland is a case in point. It has been operating S-62 equipment, the dynamic components of which were tested, developed, and used for more than 12 years with S-55 helicopters in New York and Los Angeles. In similar fashion, it has been assisted in the establishment of maintenance, operating, and passenger handling procedures. San Francisco/Oakland has not been able to operate without loss. Indeed, its losses have totaled approximately $1 million. But it is safe to say that it has been able to minimize its loss and that it has been able to survive to date primarily because it has benefitted from the preceding effort and accumulation of valuable knowledge and experience at other cities. As helicopter acceptance grows, and as operating costs continue their decline, extension to other cities is entirely feasible with low subsidy requirements and, ultimately, no subsidy at all.