First Helicopter Airline
from the for-the-time-is-money-crowd dept
You would think that in the down economy, it might not be the best time to start any business focused on “high-worth executives”, but an entrepreneur in Washington DC is getting ready to launch a helicopter airline that will shuttle the “time is money” crowd between New York City and Washington DC.
Comments on “First Helicopter Airline”
He'll make a mint!
When I worked at Executive Jet (now NetJets) I noticed that we didn’t seem to lose much business from economic downturns. People still had to travel, and using a fractionally-owned jet didn’t cost all that much more than commercial business travel if three or more pax were flying, but offered enormous convenience, security, and time-saving benefits over the airlines. As long as these guys can avoid the hassles of commercial travel (read: strip searches and delays) they will do great.
copterline
Not really the first helicopter airline, as copterline (http://www.copterline.com/eng/) has been flying between Helsinki and Tallinn for some years already. First in U.S. maybe…
We'd had it for years
We’ve had this service in Canada for years! You can hop on a helicopter and fly from Vancouver to Victoria BC. It’s reasonably priced if you need to move quickly – $130 CAN for a roundtrip. They also fly to Whistler, Langley, and Abbostford (the latter 2 being cities close to, but smaller than Vancouver). Also goes to Seattle…so no, it’s not the first in the US.
They boast “Offering North America’s first ever transborder International scheduled helicopter service, Helijet International Inc. also links Victoria B.C. with the Emerald City of Seattle, Washington” http://www.helijet.com
Why helicopters?
Wouldn’t a jet be faster and quieter?
Re: Why helicopters?
A jet would be faster in the air, but any time savings would be eaten up by having to get from the airport to the destination. Helicopters get you closer to where you want to be due to their much smaller space requirements for taking off and landing.