The city could lift a years-old cap on helicopter trips at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport in order to get companies to pivot to electric aircraft, according to a draft contract for a new operator of the aviation facility.
Sightseeing flights have been limited to about 30,000 a year since 2016 at the landing pads at Pier 6, but officials are now looking at removing that restriction for so-called electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, also known as eVTOL.
The futuristic craft are supposedly quieter than conventional helicopters, according to the city Economic Development Corporation, which manages the heliport, but politicians and activists were outraged that the city would not only maintain the high existing allowance for helicopter tours, but open the door to more flights from the Lower Manhattan pier.
"We need to eliminate the non-essential tourism travel and uber-elite taxi travel that’s happening from the Downtown heliport," said Council Member Lincoln Restler, preparing for a hearing on the matter on Monday. "It’s time for EDC to listen to New Yorkers. Maintaining the status quo is unacceptable and they need to do better."
The lawmaker represents parts of the Brooklyn waterfront inundated by the whirlybirds and last year introduced unsuccessful legislation to ban all non-essential trips from city-owned heliports. It was one of several attempts — also unsuccessful — at all three levels of governments in New York and New Jersey to rein in the loud and polluting aircraft over the Big Apple amid soaring noise complaints in recent years.
The number of tourist flights have been capped at 29,650 a year since 2016 under a de Blasio-era agreement with the industry, which reduced the trips roughly in half at the time. But the city now wants to allow an incoming operator to go above that threshold again once 50 percent of its tourism take-offs are with eVTOLs, which still need to be certified for paid passenger service by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Any increase in flights would only be for eVTOLs, and would have to be granted by the EDC, according to a spokesperson.
The city-controlled corporation will have to ensure it "does not materially impact the quality of life of New Yorkers," according to the contract.
But advocates say helicopters already impact the quality of life, adding that the proposed agreement is too vague given that eVTOLs are not in widespread use.
"We don't know truly how loud they will be, especially when it's a cumulative effect of them," said Melissa Elstein, the chair of the board of Stop The Chop, which advocates for helicopter regulation in New York and New Jersey. "We don't know exactly when the FAA is going to certify the eVTOLs and how it's going to play out. So in the meantime, we want a full ban of the fossil fuel non-essential helicopters."
The draft agreement doesn't impact the number of luxury air taxi flights, advocates noted. Instead, it looks like the city may try to expand those flights, said Stop the Chop's President Andrew Rosenthal.
He pointed to a section of the document calling for an "expanded passenger lounge" and a "segregated passenger flows to separate tour passengers from air taxi passengers."
"Put in a separate entrance and exit for their elite clientele that wouldn't mix with the riff-raff tourists," said Rosenthal. "There are hints in here that not only is this not an improvement of the quality of life or the conditions at [Downtown Manhattan Heliport] for the citizens of New York, this is going to lead to a degradation over time because of an expansion of total traffic."
The proposed changes are buried in the 134-page draft contract [PDF] between the city and Downtown Skyport, a Delaware-registered limited liability company, to operate the heliport for up to 20 years.
The company would take charge of the location starting in February, and pay annual fees starting $2.75 million and rising to $5.8 million by 2045.
The rechargeable fliers are "significantly quieter than helicopters," according to EDC spokesperson Adrien Lesser, who provided this video by California-based eVTOL company Joby Aviation, showcasing noise comparisons between its aircraft and other planes and helicopters.
Aircraft by Joby Aviation logged about 65 decibels during a test with NASA in the Golden State three years ago, a noise level comparable to "normal conversation."
The Mayor’s Office of Contract Services and the Department of Small Business Services will hold a public hearing on the proposed contract on Monday, Dec. 9, at 2:30 p.m., at 2 Lafayette St., 14th Floor, Room 1412.
