who cares?

Cheaper chopper serves Newark fliers

By RICHARD NEWMAN - The Record - Dec 14

Tony Spero flying the new Newark-lower-Manhattan helicopter shuttle in a demonstration run over Port Newark on Wednesday.

A helicopter lift to lower Manhattan from Newark Airport is about to get more affordable.

Shuttles that cost $159 each way, plus fees, are scheduled to begin Monday from Continental Airline's Terminal C to the Downtown Manhattan Heliport.

The new service by U.S. Helicopter -- a start-up that has been shuttling American Airlines passengers from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Wall Street since March -- will be the only scheduled helicopter shuttle service linking Newark Liberty International and Manhattan. Flights are to take off once an hour.

A charter operator, Helicopter Flight Services Inc., already offers flights between Newark and Manhattan for $1,250 each way, which breaks down to about $313 each for four passengers.

And, of course, there are other options such as a taxicabs and the AirTrain rail service, both of which cost much less but take much longer.

But certain premium travelers will likely jump at the chance to avoid ground transportation.

"The biggest benefit is the time savings," said Monisa Cline, staff vice president of North American sales for Continental, which is allowing U.S. Helicopter to use Gate 71 at its Terminal C as part of a marketing agreement. Continental expects the shuttle, which takes less than eight minutes, will help lure more high-yielding corporate customers to its Northeast hub. "Our sales team is talking this up," Cline said.

The primary market is midlevel managers at large companies whose travel policies permit use of limousine service, said U.S. Helicopter CEO Jerry Murphy, who rode along on several demonstration flights Wednesday for the media.

Reporters and photographers were searched by federal screeners in Terminal C before descending a stairway to the tarmac where a Continental van delivered them a few hundred yards to the blue Sikorsky S-76 helicopter.

The aircraft's cabin is about the size of a minivan and seats eight, not counting the pilot and co-pilot.

The demonstration flight that lifted off at 10:20 a.m. quickly climbed to about 1,100 feet, and soared over the turnpike and Jersey City row houses before buzzing past the Statue of Liberty and touching down smoothly less than seven minutes later at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport.

Travelers who depart from lower Manhattan to catch a Continental flight from Terminal C need to be screened only once, at the heliport, where they can receive both their helicopter and airplane boarding passes. That means no waiting on long check-in and security lines at Newark.

Their luggage also needs just one screening.

"Screening over there is a huge benefit," Cline said.

If the helicopters are grounded because of bad weather, the company will substitute limo service.

E-mail: newman@northjersey.com