Lincoln Restler, the council member representing the Brooklyn Heights and Greenpoint ward of New York’s city council has introduced legislation designed to reduce Helicopter traffic in the city’s East River corridor. The bill, which apparently has won support from Council members representing wards in New York’s Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx boroughs will seek to ban “non-essential” flights from city owned heliports. According to a tweet by Restler “There are approximately 4,000 non-essential helicopter flights over New York City monthly by Uber, Blade and tourism companies…it’s disruptive to our communities and bad for the environment”.
Complaints about aircraft noise are, of course, nothing new but they have risen significantly in recent years in line with traffic growth fuelled by ride sharing apps and other booking platforms.
If successful, the ban would not only hamper corporate and leisure traffic but would a significant impact on the business models of nascent eVTOL companies.
