A trio of congressional helicopter critics from New York City have introduced legislation to ban them from Gotham’s airspace, including over waterways. Over the weekend, 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.”
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 on Saturday, 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 on Friday 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.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal 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.