New York Airways
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| Founded | 1949 | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 1979 | ||||||
| Focus cities | New York City | ||||||
| Destinations | See Destinations below | ||||||
| Parent company | See Fleet below | ||||||
| Headquarters |
LaGuardia Airport Flushing, New York United States |
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New York Airways was a helicopter airline in the New York City area, founded in 1949 as a mail and cargo carrier. On 9 July 1953 it may have been the first scheduled helicopter airline to carry passengers in the United States, with headquarters at LaGuardia Airport. Although primarily a helicopter airline operator with scheduled passenger operations, New York Airways also flew fixed wing aircraft, such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 19-passenger STOL twin turboprop aircraft.
Passenger flights started with Sikorsky S-55 helicopters, with three Sikorsky S-58s added to its five S-55s in 1956; in 1958 the Boeing Vertol V-44, a 15-seat civil version of the Piasecki H-21 took over. In 1962 they transitioned to the tandem rotor, twin turbine engine powered Boeing Vertol 107-II Turbocopter and later operated the twin turbine engine Sikorsky S-61. In February 1955 the one way fare from LaGuardia to Idlewild was $4.50. The ship was a Sikorsky H-19, N418A. The trip took ten minutes and their phone number was DEfender 5-6600.
The first scheduled passenger flights to Manhattan arrived in December 1956 at the new heliport west of the West Side Highway at 30th St. The downtown heliport on East River Pier 6 opened in 1960 and New York Airways moved all its Manhattan passenger flights down there around December 1960. Due to route restrictions on the single-engine Vertol 44, nonstop flights from Manhattan to Idlewild had to await the twin-engine 107. Moody's says in 1962 the "operating revenue" of $3.9 million included $2.2 million federal subsidy. In June 1964 they had 32 daily flights from JFK to Newark Airport and 33 returning; all flights each way between about 0900 and 1930 stopped at Wall St. The only other flights: 15 round trips a day between JFK and the Port Authority building at the World's Fair (La Guardia was still under construction).
Scheduled flights to the top of the Pan Am Building began in December 1965; they ended in 1968, then resumed for a few months in 1977. In April 1966 23 flights a day flew nonstop to Pan Am's terminal at JFK, scheduled 10 minutes; passengers could check in at the Pan Am Building 40 minutes before their scheduled departure out of JFK. The downtown heliport had 13 flights a day to Newark, 5 nonstops to TWA's terminal at JFK and 12 to LGA, all of which continued to JFK. (Downtown had no weekend flights.) Soon after Pan Am Building flights resumed the March 1977 Official Airline Guide (OAG) showed 48 weekday S-61 departures from there: 12 to EWR, 14 to LGA then JFK, and 22 nonstops to JFK.
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