Goldman Bill to Restrict Helicopters Could Be Legislative Rotor Rooter
Proposed legislation to limit helicopter flights over Lower Manhattan might be described by Samuel Johnson’s quip about second marriages: “a triumph of hope over experience.” Nevertheless, a decade of attempts to craft law that would curtail the noise and air pollution from rotary-winged aviation embarked on its latest chapter this week, when U.S. Congressman Dan Goldman introduced the Communities Before Air Tourism Act, a proposed law that (if enacted) would require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Park Service (NPS) to consider the impact on state parks and local communities while negotiating agreements that allow overflights by helicopters. The same measure would expand the criteria used to evaluate air tour agreements to account for noise, safety, and quality-of-life impacts on neighborhoods under the route. According to Rep. Goldman, over 95% of the 58,000 helicopter flights from the Downtown Skyport and the East 34th St. Heliport – the two heliports controlled by the City – are non-essential.
Under current federal law, these agencies have a mandate to protect national parks, park visitors, and the national aviation system when authorizing helicopter flights, but are not allowed to factor other considerations into their decisions.
“For years, New Yorkers have endured tens of thousands of non-essential helicopter flights that flood our neighborhoods with unbearable noise and worsening air quality,” Mr. Goldman said. “After the tragic helicopter crash last April, it is long past time for the FAA to give our communities a real voice in choosing the routes that these tours fly.” This was a reference to an incident earlier this year when a sightseeing flight that originated at the Downtown Skyport (as the East River helicopter landing facility on South Street in Lower Manhattan is now known) broke apart in mid-air and fell into the Hudson River, killing all six people onboard.
Melissa Elstein, the board chair of Stop the Chop, a grassroots coalition of waterfront residents in Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey lobbying to scale back helicopter tours, called such flights, “a plague adversely impacting people on both sides of the Hudson River. This dangerous, excessively noisy, and polluting nonessential helicopter traffic places the safety of millions of people under or near their flight paths at risk on a daily basis and significantly reduces quality of life.”
The Downtown Skyport has a cap of 29,650 tour flights per year, which allows for more than 80 flights per day. (The helicopter that crashed in April was on its eighth flight of the day.)
Mr. Goldman’s new proposed law follows his sponsorship in 2023 of the Safe And Quiet Skies Act, which sought to restrict local helicopter flights by mandating strict regulation of commercial air tour operations (including requiring that such tours fly higher than 1,500 feet). This law, which was never enacted, would also have prohibited tour flights over various kinds of federal land, including national parks, which would keep helicopters away from Liberty, Ellis, and Governors Islands.
Both bills reprised earlier proposed measures sponsored by Congressman Jerry Nadler (who represented Lower Manhattan for decades, until the 2022 redistricting that moved his constituency to Midtown) that failed to gain passage. Separately, State Assembly member Robert Carroll sought in 2023 to impose new fees and penalties on tour operators by creating taxes for noise and carbon emissions related to helicopter flights. This measure also died.
Part of what impedes bills seeking to regulate helicopter flights may be the political influence that often correlates with running a lucrative business in partnership with government. Prices for sightseeing tours originating at the Downtown Skyport start at $249 for a 15-minute excursion. The City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) – a non-profit corporation that negotiates strategic partnerships designed to harness private-sector resources to public projects – announced in late 2024 that it had recruited a new partner to run the Downtown Skyport. According to the terms of the contract, EDC expects to earn at least $14 million during the first five years of the new lease, and estimates the helicopter tourism industry contributes more than $50 million in economic benefit to the City.