Blade Urban Air Mobility has signed an agreement to renovate and operate the Newport, Jersey City, New Jersey Helistop (91NJ) on the Hudson River waterfront. Under the agreement, Blade will operate the facility for itself and third-party operators, excluding air tour operators. Blade will begin a pilot program for charter flights and explore the viability of scheduled by-the-seat service between the helistop and New York City area airports and heliports. A flight from the helistop to JFK Airport will take approximately five minutes versus up to two and one-half hours by car.
In an effort to mitigate noise, only helicopter flights for public transportation or emergency services will be permitted at the helistop. Tourist flights, as well as helicopter operators who violate the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s designated noise abatement routing for tourist flights along the New Jersey and New York City Hudson River corridor, also will be denied access to the helistop.
Blade will have the opportunity to construct an exclusive-use, Blade-branded terminal at the helistop, which is adjacent to eight office towers with more than five million square feet of office space with tenants including JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Fidelity Investments, L’Oreal, Forbes, and Tory Burch, and more than 25,000 employees.