December 1, 2008
US Helicopter hopeful of Wall St. service any day now
After a full month of delays, US Helicopter is still awaiting approval to return to the Downtown Manhattan Heliport.
“We were very hopeful it would be today,” US Helicopter’s VP of Marketing Donal McSullivan told NewYorkology in an interview this afternoon. “We’re totally at their mercy.”
Since November 1, US Helicopter has been unable to use the location near Wall Street because the new heliport managers have been unable to get their full security plan approved by the Transportation Security Administration.
On November 1, the management of the heliport switched from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to FirstFlight of Horseheads, N.Y. While some portions of the heliport’s security plan have been approved, it still lacks TSA approval that would allow helicopters from the Wall Street heliport to land at Newark or JFK Airports. And that’s US Helicopter’s main business.
Lara Uselding, a spokeswoman for the TSA, warned in today’s New York Times that the delay could stretch a few more weeks.
McSullivan said FirstFlight’s inability to get a TSA plan in place has been very costly to US Helicopter, which is still offering service to the airports from the 34th Street Heliport in Manhattan. As soon as the plan is in place, he said service could resume at Wall Street within a day. US Helicopter offers 8-minute service to the airports from Manhattan from $159.
FirstFlight has not returned calls to NewYorkology for this story, or since the story was first reported here November 20.
Picture credit: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology
Earlier: US Helicopter temporarily suspends all Wall St. flights
On the 8-minute $99 helicopter from JFK to Manhattan
Port Authority to handoff Wall St. heliport management
$45 helicopter transfer to JFK for Delta economy-class
December 1, 2008 4:16 PM in Arrivology, Downtown
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