U.S. Helicopter Corp. chief executive Jerry Murphy says the eight-minute rides, which cost $159 each way, will appeal mainly to business travelers who don't want to waste up to two hours in a car or cab fighting New York traffic.

Murphy said his helicopters, the first to offer airport service in more than 20 years, also will fly to LaGuardia and Newark airports by the end of 2006. The company expects to carry 150,000 passengers in its first year.

"This will be a faster, more reliable system to get from New York City to the airports," he said.

Some critics are questioning whether the TSA should be helping a business that primarily caters to wealthy corporate clients and the rich and famous.

"The idea that federal dollars are going to be spent in order to make life easier for plutocrats strikes me as wrong," says Bill Scannell, a privacy rights activist and frequent critic of the TSA.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said that using "an already strained screening system so that wealthy executives don't have to stand in line for screening at airports is a serious misuse of federal monies."

Helicopter service to JFK was offered in the mid-1960s and in 1977 from the roof of the then-Pan Am Building. The service was shut down after a freak accident in which a helicopter tipped over with its blades spinning. Four people on the roof were killed, and one person on the ground was hit and killed by a broken blade. Other heliport service continued through the mid-1980s.

Murphy's company now has a deal with American Airlines, but he said he expects to sign up other carriers soon.

If the latest Manhattan experiment works, the company may expand to 10 more cities, including Washington, D.C.

TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis says the agency has budgeted $560,000 for the first year of the heliport service. That will pay for eight screeners at the Wall Street heliport and more at another New York City site set to open later this year. "We gave this careful consideration," she said.

Douglas Hofsass, the TSA official responsible for security at the new heliport, cited another factor in TSA's decision: the safety of New York City's airspace. If passengers and their bags aren't screened at the heliport, he said, they'll be flying through the city's airspace unchecked.

Source: USA Today