The Battle for West 30th

Jeffrey Sherrills, a ramp agent for heliport operator Air Pegasus, hot-refuels a Helicopters Inc. Bell 206L-4 as a pair of Sikorsky S-76Cs coordinate passenger transfers at the West 30th Street Heliport. (VAI/Dan Sweet)

The Battle for West 30th

VAI leads the charge to keep critical New York heliport open.

By Mark Huber

Swift action by Vertical Aviation International (VAI) earlier this year thwarted the latest attempt to shut down the West 30th Street Heliport (KJRA) in New York City.

Buried inside proposed New York State legislation to expand the green space associated with the redevelopment of Pier 76 in the 550-acre, 4.5 mile–long Hudson River Park was language that could have led to the closure of the heliport. Specifically, it prohibited “any facility for motorized aircraft, including a heliport.”

VAI quickly mobilized its members to respond in what Cade Clark, VAI chief government affairs officer, called the largest grassroots campaign in the association’s history. The VAI outreach included its members, affected companies throughout the Northeast, and other regional and national aviation organizations.

In just three to four days, the coordinated effort generated an impressive 96,000 emails to New York State legislators. According to VAI’s northeastern US regional representative, Josh Rousseau, the emails from the grassroots campaign “blew up” the inboxes of legislators.

Rousseau, who joined VAI last year after a 25-year career in New York State government, says the email campaign prompted former colleagues to seek him out in the hallways of the state capitol to ask about the heliport. Rousseau used the opportunity to open lines of communication and educate lawmakers and their staffs about the importance of KJRA. “We now have a seat at the table,” he says.

A convergence of Sikorsky S-76C helicopters is a common sight at the heliport, which can handle multiple aircraft at a time. A Zip Aviation model under contract to Blade waits for charter passengers while a Flexjet helicopter prepares for landing. (VAI/Dan Sweet)

Serving New York since the 1950s

The West 30th Street Heliport is a thriving facility for air taxi and general aviation helicopter operations, logging more than 40 flights per day. The majority are air taxi operations, including helicopter rideshare Blade–branded flights. That company also operates a dedicated passenger terminal on-site. Law enforcement and air ambulances also use the heliport. Air tour flights at the site ended in 2010.

The heliport has been in continuous operation since 1956. Begun with two helipads, it now hosts six, with parking for up to 11 helicopters (8 on a 30,000-sq.-ft. concrete wharf and 3 on an adjacent barge). Normal operating hours are 7 am to 7 pm weekdays and 11 am to 7 pm on weekends, but the heliport is available 24/7 with fuel when needed, the only one in the New York City metropolitan area offering this convenience.

The heliport is owned by the Hudson River Park Trust, a local–state partnership formed in 1998 via the Hudson River Park Act to administer the Hudson River Park and related commercial development. Businesses at the 1.6-acre site pay the trust annual fees.

That ownership structure has enabled a political climate that puts KJRA under almost perennial attack from a small group of local activists and area residents. Critics maintain that the operation of a commercial heliport within the confines of a public park creates a conflict, even though all approaches and departures must be conducted over the Hudson River and not over the park’s green space. Antihelicopter advocates have been highly successful in getting industry-­limiting legislation introduced and nearly passed into law.

“It’s an ongoing, contentious matter for certain groups—small pockets of residents, particularly in New York City, who have a problem with our operations as it relates to their quality of life. We recognize that, and we do not diminish that,” says Rousseau. “We embrace that conversation because we want to be good neighbors. We fly where we live.”

Rousseau characterizes most of these anti-industry efforts as “ill-­informed ideas and misconceptions about the realities of how we operate,” adding that most flights conducted out of KJRA are dictated by the FAA’s rules for local airspace that control “what we can and cannot do to mitigate our impact on the local community.” For example, helicopters on local flights in the Hudson River VFR corridor may fly no higher than 1,000 ft. and must maintain a speed of less than 140 kt. and fly in designated north- and southbound “lanes” over the river. In addition, complaints coming into the 311 hotline, New York City’s all-purpose government service center, show a high number of sound complaints stem from a small number of residents.

Airspace Access under Threat

Nevertheless, in certain circles, attacking helicopters is good politics, and both local and state officials have used that tactic. In 2022, the state legislature passed a bill that would allow the state attorney general and individual citizens to sue helicopter operators who created “an unreasonable level of sustained noise on the ground” and would amend the Hudson River Park Act to ban from KJRA “nonessential” helicopter traffic—defined as anything unrelated to public safety, construction, research, or news-gathering.

Concurrently, the New York City Council introduced legislation to ban similarly “nonessential” flights from the two other government-owned heliports in the city, Downtown Manhattan/Wall Street Heliport (KJRB) and East 34th Street Heliport (6N5). Fresh versions of that legislation remain pending, as does a proposed helicopter sound tax, but the ability of those bills to affect the amount of sound from helicopter operations is highly questionable, according to an analysis by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).

Despite an alleged 17-fold increase in 311 complaints about helicopter sound over the past five years, only 4% of those flights originated at those two heliports, according to the NYCEDC. (There also seems to be a correlation between a rapid increase in 311 complaints and pending antihelicopter legislation dating to at least 2015.)

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed the state legislation in December 2022 on the grounds of its questionable legality, noting, “Recent federal case law makes clear that nonfederal actors must carefully consider how state and local restrictions interact with federal laws governing aviation. … Certain elements of this legislation run counter to the federal scheme regulating New York’s airports and airspace.”

Whether the passenger has two feet or four, charter flight crews at the heliport assist all in their travels, including the passengers of this M R Aviation Leonardo AW139. (VAI/Dan Sweet)

It is highly likely any city-­enacted ban would similarly run afoul of the legal principle of federal preemption, which gives the federal government sole authority to regulate aviation. Even if the ban survived a legal challenge, however, it likely wouldn’t make an impact on sound levels in the city. A recent analysis published by the nonprofit newsroom Gothamist shows that two-thirds of the helicopter sound over the city is from flights that originate in New Jersey or the Hamptons. While 13% of the flights analyzed did originate at KJRA, the city ban would extend only to the two heliports it owns, not to KJRA, which is controlled by the Hudson River Park Trust.

But the diffuse origin of flights underscores a point Rousseau successfully made in his April 2024 testimony before the New York City Council: “Banning this and banning that, from our perspective, is not sensible policy. You’re moving a problem from one place to another.”

Such was the case when, in the name of noise abatement, the city strong-armed New York air tour operators to “voluntarily” limit flights originating at the Downtown Manhattan/Wall Street Heliport by 50%, beginning in 2017, or lose access to that heliport altogether. In response, several operators either relocated their bases to New Jersey or established satellite bases there, in both cases originating flights that continue to fly over New York City.

Such a scenario solves nothing, Rousseau says. “We want to be good neighbors and solve problems together. If folks are interested in that, we are always ready and willing. If they’re not, that’s a different conversation.”

An Airbus ACH160 arrives at the West 30th Street Heliport. The facility can handle several medium-sized aircraft simultaneously. (VAI/Dan Sweet)

Finding Compromise

Initially, the latest state legislation impacting KJRA was a different conversation. “This was a very direct assault on this facility to simply get rid of it, as opposed to limiting operations or taxing this or taxing that. That’s what made this dramatically different and critical,” Rousseau says. Left unchecked, the original bill language was “the first true, legitimate threat to KJRA in 20 years,” he says. “It got our attention.”

The bill came less than a year after ecoprotest group Extinction Rebellion (XR) unsuccessfully tried to forcibly shut down KJRA on Sep. 13, 2023, leading to multiple arrests. Groups such as XR aren’t interested in negotiating with the rotorcraft industry, which they characterize as “pestilence.” Nor can they be persuaded of the promise of clean, quiet transportation by electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. XR spokesperson Jack Baldwin says eVTOLs would be “simply electrifying wasteful, unnecessary transportation.”

Fortunately, New York State legislators seem more open to compromise. Rousseau says VAI’s outreach to members—the one that generated 96,000 emails—was “short, sweet, and to the point” about the consequences of closing KJRA: direct and indirect job losses, reduced access for first responders and helicopter air ambulance transport, and slowed advancement of advanced air mobility (AAM). The last outcome directly conflicts with New York Mayor Eric Adams’s goal of integrating AAM into the city’s future transportation mix.

Overall, general aviation in New York supports 43,200 jobs and contributes $8.6 billion to the state’s economy, according to the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA). According to a 2012 study prepared by New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management, businesses in the greater New York City area that use helicopter services account for 4.2% of local private-­sector payroll and $40 billion in the city’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The study found that “in a survey of corporate helicopter users, 80% rated ‘helicopter access’ as either ‘important’ or ‘very important’ and indicated that without it, their presence in New York City would be significantly reduced or activities dramatically curtailed.” The study went on to note that a mere 1% drop in private-sector employment would reduce the local GDP by $678 million (in 2024 dollars, adjusted for inflation).

Rousseau notes that preserving existing vertical aviation infrastructure such as KJRA is critical for the future of AAM and eVTOLs. “No matter what state we’re talking about, what locality we’re talking about, if a piece of infrastructure like this disappears, it is very, very unlikely to return.”

With the grassroots campaign alerting legislators to the issues posed by KJRA’s closure, Rousseau then worked with supporters, the legislation’s sponsors, and the co-chairs of the New York Legislative Aviation Caucus to make the bill more favorable to vertical aviation interests. He also reached out to members of the state legislature whose districts host companies that either rely on the heliport for transportation or contribute to it as rotorcraft industry suppliers.

“Thanks to relationships forged during my career in New York State government, I was also able to utilize my network of talented and connected state capitol veterans who shared our goal to preserve the heliport,” adds Rousseau. “With our grassroots campaign, working closely with the mayor’s office and tapping into the numerous private-sector business interests and VAI members who value the facility, and with the support of our sister organizations and others (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, The Business Council of New York State, Eastern Region Helicopter Council, NBAA, New York Aviation Management Association, and the Partnership for New York City), we succeeded in preventing the immediate closure of the heliport.”

In the end, the heliport prohibition was stripped from the legislation, which now also directs the creation of an advisory task force that must include members from the rotorcraft and business communities. The result, Rousseau says, is “a level playing field” and an increased “degree of fairness” for the rotorcraft community.

“We really struck a chord. It was a very successful effort.”

VAI’s Clark assigns much of the success of the campaign to save the heliport to the passion of a VAI membership dedicated to protecting the industry. “When your outreach campaign generates nearly 100,000 messages to legislators, they sit up and take notice.”

Clark also credits Rousseau’s efforts and VAI’s regional advocacy. “This win is a testament to VAI’s regional representative program. The program we put in place on the West Coast and now on the East Coast is paying dividends and providing our members with a return on their investment.”

But ever the realist, Rousseau cautions against complacency in a political environment rife with continuing threats, including “the burden the new law has placed on all involved to make economic investment in the Hudson River Park a reality while balancing the needs of the industry and others who support the heliport,” he says. “Our work is far from over. We need our membership and industry to understand that the investment of their time and energy moving forward is still vital to what we need to do to gain a lasting positive outcome.”

Mark Huber is an aviation journalist with more than two decades of experience in the vertical flight industry.