Illinois-based helicopter charter company Helicopters (St. Louis Downtown) has applied to the Department of Transportation (DOT) for authority to operate scheduled services as a commuter air carrier in the greater New York City area, using four Bell Helicopters already in the fleet.
A regulatory filing reveals the plan is to operate two primary routes:
- three roundtrips daily from Mondays to Fridays and on Sundays between New York West 30th Street and New York JFK; and
- one rotation Mondays to Fridays and on Sundays between New York West 30th Street and New York Newark.
Inhouse aircraft to be used will include three six-seater B407s and one six-seater B206L4 helicopter.
No additional aircraft will be required outside those already servicing the New York market, and no changes to the existing management team are foreseen if the authority is granted. All maintenance will be conducted in-house.
Founded in 1981, Helicopters was initially privately owned but transitioned to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) in 2016, meaning it is 100% employee-owned. It originally serviced the Electronic News Gathering (ENG) market in the midwestern United States but has since expanded into more than 30 US metropolitan areas, where it performs Part 91 ENG, Part 135 charter, maintenance, utility, and government helicopter services. All maintenance is conducted out of a leased hangar at Linden airport in New Jersey.
According to its application, Helicopters' fleet comprises more than 60 turbine helicopters. In the New York City area, it has continuously provided on-demand charter flight services in Bell 407 and Bell 206L4 helicopters since December 2019. As of November 2022, Helicopters will have flown over 3,000 charter flights within the New York metroplex.
