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And the helicopter is back.

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Airports
Terminal

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Terminal : American Chopper

A return to the whirlybird days at JFK

By: Mike Guy
March/April 2007 , Page 36

Once upon a time, in the mid-1960s, luxury helicopters ferried passengers from atop the Pan Am Building, on Park Avenue in Manhattan, to JFK Airport.

It represented the golden age of air travel, a pinnacle of sophistication and speed. Then a spectacular crash killed four passengers and a pedestrian on the street below, and the era of New York’s airport helicopter connection came to an end.

Eventually, of course, much of the glamour associated with flying out of JFK was grounded as well. But today we’re experiencing something of a renaissance of the old Idlewild complex’s “coffee, tea or me” heyday.

JetBlue is renovating the iconic “winged” former TWA terminal designed by Eero Saarinen. American Airlines has built a sprawling, state-of-the-art Terminal 9, with one sparkling new Admirals Club in operation and another, even roomier lounge opening this summer. And the helicopter is back.

For some months now, U.S. Helicopter has been running a shuttle between Downtown Manhattan Heliport at the end of Wall Street’s Pier 6 (below) and the tarmac on the secure side of Terminal 9. Costing $159 each way (or a bit more than twice the usual car-service fare), the eight-passenger blue Sikorsky S-76’s follow a flight path that takes you around Governor’s Island, out over the Statue of Liberty and 1,000 feet above snarled traffic on the BQE. Total flight time is eight minutes. On the JFK side, it’s a quick trot under the rotating blades and up a flight of stairs to the leather armchairs, plasma screens and cash bar of the new lounge.

Fittingly, U.S. Helicopter’s president and CEO, Jerry Murphy, was a vice president and general manager at Pan Am. Better than most, he knows how far domestic terminals have fallen in the pantheon now headed by facilities in places like Hong Kong and Dubai.

But he’s happy to be doing his part to help one great American airport get back in the game. As he says, “When I first started in the aviation industry, traveling was exciting and enjoyable. People looked forward to the trip ahead. An eight-minute commute to the gate? It avoids everything you dread.”