In a strongly worded rebuttal issued Monday, the Helicopter Association International (HAI) slammed a congressional bill announced Saturday that would effectively ban most private and commercial helicopter traffic over New York City. The group called the bill “an attempt to completely dismantle a thriving industry” and further characterized it as having a chilling effect on development of one of the potentially largest urban air mobility (UAM) markets in the world.
“With an industry advancing in terms of both urban mobility and unmanned aircraft, these politicians are looking back, not forward,” said HAI president Matt Zuccaro, a veteran NYC helicopter pilot and a former aviation executive for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “There is no one more focused on safety than the helicopter pilots and operators themselves,” Zuccaro said. “These politicians’ draconian solution to the perceived threat of helicopters is to put an industry out of business.”
HAI attacked the “Improving Helicopter Safety Act of 2019” as having “no positive effect on aviation safety over New York City” and a threat to the “viability” of the helicopter industry there. The association went further, accusing the bill’s primary sponsors—New York City Democratic U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Jerry Nadler, and Nydia Velazquez—of promulgating falsehoods and selectively manipulating accident data to create a rationale for the legislation. It said the bill’s sponsors used nearly 40 years of accident data to inflate safety claims and falsely state that the FAA “does not have any regulations, policies or procedures to account for New York City’s uniquely crowded airspace.”
The association pointed out that the FAA updates helicopter route charts in select markets, including New York City, every 56 days or as needed and that they provide guidance on “standard routes, specific altitude limitations when appropriate, standard frequencies, and mandatory reporting points.” HAI also said the lawmakers ignored the protections offered by established altitude ranges in New York Class B airspace, including the Hudson River and East River Exclusion Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA). It also said they disregarded special practices adopted by New York helitour operators, including “established flight routes that standardize pending flight paths, altitudes flown, and frequencies used by all aircraft” that minimize the need for interaction with air traffic controllers.
Despite two high-profile NYC helicopter crashes that killed six over the last year, HAI noted that helicopter traffic in the city is far safer than ground transportation there, which accounted for more than 60,000 injuries and 203 fatalities in 2018. The association called for increased community dialogue, including reconstitution of the NYC helicopter task force, to “work in good faith to address the concerns of all stakeholders at the table.”
A trio of congressional helicopter critics from New York City has introduced legislation to ban them from Gotham’s airspace, including over waterways. In late October, Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, and Nydia Velazquez introduced “The Improving Helicopter Safety Act of 2019” that would essentially eliminate helicopter flights conducted under either Part 91 or 135 over “any city with a population of over eight million people and with a population density of over 25,000 people per square mile.”
In a strongly worded rebuttal issued shortly after the bill was unveiled, the Helicopter Association International (HAI) slammed the bill, calling it “an attempt to completely dismantle a thriving industry” and further characterizing it as having a chilling effect on development of one of the potentially largest urban air mobility (UAM) markets in the world.
The bill would allow civil helicopter operations at airports but would charge the FAA to develop “the shortest, most direct routes possible to access or depart from airports” and update aeronautical charts accordingly. Helicopters flying law enforcement and air medical missions would be exempted.
At a press event in New York City, the lawmakers took aim at the area’s helicopter businesses.“The risks that commuter, charter, and tourism helicopter flights pose to New Yorkers far outweigh the benefit to the very small number of people who use them,” Maloney said. Nadler served harsh criticism on the city’s already highly restricted helitourism, saying, “There is simply no justification for allowing tourists to joy-ride over our city, endangering lives and creating unnecessary noise pollution.”
The lawmakers were joined by representatives of local government and various community groups, including Stop the Chop NY-NJ and the Brooklyn Heights Association. “With the exponential growth of private, commercial helicopter traffic, New York’s skies are quickly becoming just as congested as our streets,” charged New York State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal (D).
In 2015, there were 59,000 helicopter flights departing lower Manhattan’s Pier 6 heliport. Via an agreement with operators, that number was cut to 28,000 beginning in 2017. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, who brokered that agreement, said he had “no use” for civil helicopter flights over the city.
While air tour flights that originate in New York are down, the New York Times reported sharp increases in the amount of helicopter traffic at both LaGuardia and Newark airports in August, with traffic up at the former by 25 percent to 1,096 operations and an operations increase of 21 percent at the latter, to 4,391. Per-seat helicopter ridesharing services such as Blade and Uber Copter are credited for much of this increase.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported a surge in helicopter noise complaints to the city’s 311 service this year, with 1,171 recorded through August, up from 640 in all of 2018. However, in 2015, in the months leading up to the deal that cut helitour flights, helicopter noise complaints similarly surged, to 1,083 for the year, then dropped to 681 in 2016 and stayed close to that level until this year.
Industry Response
“With an industry advancing in terms of both urban mobility and unmanned aircraft, these politicians are looking back, not forward,” said HAI president Matt Zuccaro, a veteran NYC helicopter pilot and a former aviation executive for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “There is no one more focused on safety than the helicopter pilots and operators themselves,” Zuccaro said. “These politicians’ draconian solution to the perceived threat of helicopters is to put an industry out of business.”
HAI attacked the bill as having “no positive effect on aviation safety over New York City” and a threat to the “viability” of the helicopter industry there. HAI went further, accusing the bill’s primary sponsors, New York City democratic U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Jerry Nadler, and Nydia Velazquez of promulgating falsehoods and selectively manipulating accident data to create a rationale for the legislation. HAI said the bill’s sponsors used nearly 40 years of accident data to inflate safety claims and falsely state that the FAA “does not have any regulations, policies or procedures to account for New York City’s uniquely crowded airspace.”
The association pointed out that the FAA updates helicopter route charts in select markets including New York City every 56 days or as needed and that the charts provide guidance on “standard routes, specific altitude limitations when appropriate, standard frequencies, and mandatory reporting points.” HAI also said that the lawmakers ignored the protections offered by established altitude ranges in New York Class B airspace including the Hudson River and East River Exclusion Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA), and special practices adopted by New York helitour operators, including “established flight routes that standardize pending flight paths, altitudes flown, and frequencies used by all aircraft” that minimize the need for interaction with air traffic controllers.
Despite two high-profile NYC helicopter crashes that killed six over the last year, HAI noted that helicopter traffic in the city is far safer than ground transportation there, which accounted for more than 60,000 injuries and 203 fatalities in 2018. The association called for increased community dialogue, including reconstitution of the NYC helicopter task force, to “work in good faith to address the concerns of all stakeholders at the table.”
The bill also drew objections from the National Air Transportation Association (NATA). “This particular proposal is poorly disguised as safety legislation when in actuality it really is another anti-aviation Nimby-ism proposal,” said Jonathon Freye, v-p of government and public affairs for NATA, adding the association “strongly opposes to any attempt to restrict access to the national airspace system especially in instances like this one where they single out one group.”
In addition to the harm on the helicopter industry in New York, Freye was concerned at broader ramifications of such a bill. “Proposals like this one are a slippery slope that embolden other policymakers to pursue similar legislation,” he said, saying it is the proposal is the latest in a series of attempts by lawmakers to restrict airspace access at the local level. “It’s a constant drumbeat of legislators trying to whittle away at access for aviation stakeholders and that’s the problem.”
While the proposal may not progress this year, Freye said, “I think its incumbent on our industry to take all proposals like this one seriously. Whether or not it will pass, it reflects some kind of sentiment and represents a call for our industry to reengage with policymakers.”