Downtown Manhattan Heliport - History

History

Downtown Manhattan Heliport opened on December 8, 1960, supplementing the existing heliport at West 30th Street which opened in 1956. During the 1960s and 1970s New York Airways provided scheduled service from the heliport to the city's major airports. Scheduled passenger service was discontinued in the mid-1980s. In 2006 US Helicopter resumed scheduled passenger service with hourly flights to John F. Kennedy International Airport until November 2009 as US Helicopter ceased all services.

Much of the heliport's traffic is generated by Wall Street and the lower Manhattan financial district; top business executives and time-sensitive document deliveries often use the heliport. The heliport is also the normal landing spot for the President of the United States on visits to New York. Michael Bloomberg, now mayor of New York, frequently used the heliport to fly between Bloomberg L.P. headquarters and Johns Hopkins University when he was chairman of both institutions.

The Downtown Manhattan Heliport is a public heliport operated by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) with charter service to Newark Liberty International Airport, Teterboro Airport, Morristown Municipal Airport, and other New York-area airports. Public sightseeing and VIP flights are also common.

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