New Yorkers are no strangers to the intense noise from the spinning blades of helicopters traveling over the city, and the spike in public complaints regarding this phenomenon certainly reflects this. Yet, there may be little the city can do to limit the aerial traffic.
According to city data, there has been a seventeen-fold increase in calls over the past five years about the continuous helicopter commotion over neighborhoods across the five boroughs.
In order to mitigate this issue, the City Council is currently considering two bills aimed at minimizing the increased helicopter traffic by banning non-essential flights from city-operated helipads. The two bills specifically target the two helipads the city has jurisdiction over, which are operated by New York City’s Economic Development Corporation at East 34th Street and the Downtown Manhattan Heliport in Lower Manhattan.
One bill would ban all non-essential flights (e.g., sightseeing tours and commuters) from the two helipad locations, while the other restriction would ban “traditional” helicopters in order to increase the number of seemingly quiet and more advanced eVTOL aircrafts as supplements for the noisier models.
However, at a recent Council hearing on the proposed legislation, the nonprofit EDC revealed that only 4% of 311 complaints about helicopter noise applied to flights coming from the two city-operated heliports. The other 96% come from other heliports in the region, Jennifer Sun, executive vice president for planning at the EDC reported.
An analysis conducted by Gothamist tracking helicopter flights over Memorial Day weekend also found that a majority of them did not take off from the city-operated helipads. Considering the city has little control over rules and regulations that govern airspace, City Council’s proposed legislation would be unlikely to significantly reduce the aerial traffic and the complaints it incites. Even further, business leaders and execs may wish to increase helicopter traffic as some people look more for more convenient and private travel options as opposed to airports and services like Uber.
Gothamist’s recorded data, supplied by the live flight tracker FlightRadar24, shows that more than two-thirds of the nearly 2,000 helicopter flights from the late May weekend began at commercial heliports and airports in the farther tri-state area.
Rob Wiesenthal, the CEO of Blade, a company that operates short-distance passenger flights, told Gothamist that the viable solution is to switch to quieter and emissions-free electric eVTOL aircrafts in coming years.
