Can Make It in L.A., Copter Shuttle Line Says

Another helicopter shuttle service has quietly begun operations in Los Angeles, fighting odds that have seen three predecessors fail because of everything from crashes and noise to the choppers’ inadvertent activation of people’s automatic garage doors.

“We realize we’ve got quite a reputation to overcome,” said Rod Wickman, vice president for cargo operations at the fledgling L.A. Helicopter.

The airline is using three leased, state-of-the-art French-built helicopters to shuttle passengers and packages between Los Angeles International Airport and the Burbank, Long Beach and Fullerton airports.

In six weeks,, it plans to open its own heliport atop Citicorp’s parking garage at 7th and Figueroa streets in downtown L.A. and will begin offering service from Century City and the Commerce Business Park in the City of Commerce, Wickman said.

The fare to LAX is $58, plus tax--or free, if you’re holding a first-class ticket with certain major airlines. A business-class ticket cuts your fare to $20 to $25. A minimum cargo charge of $12 will deliver a package of up to 15 pounds.

Wickman, a former vice president at Nordic Airlines; Chairman Gordon Myers, a former 747 pilot for Pan Am and United, and Executive Vice President Lloyd Stevens, a former vice president at World Airways, say their equipment and experience set the firm apart from its predecessors.

They said they are backed by “several major investors.”

L.A. Helicopter is flying three Aerospatiale AS 350s, a six-passenger aircraft, and will add four or five 360 Dauphin nine-passenger models also built by Aerospatiale, according to Wickman. Some will be bought and some leased.

Despite the logic of an air shuttle service in sprawling, traffic-thick Los Angeles, three previous ventures failed in short order. Wickman says the only other scheduled helicopter airline in the nation is New York Helicopter.

Airspur Helicopters went out of business here more than a year ago after a crash in Long Beach injured six passengers and the design of its British-built Westland 30 helicopters was challenged by government regulators. The aircraft were so loud that more than 1,000 Orange County residents joined an organization devoted to grounding them.

In 1968, a helicopter shuttle service called L.A. Airways, which ferried passengers from Anaheim to LAX, went out of business after two crashes in three months left 44 dead.

Another firm surfaced briefly in 1975. Four years in the planning, L.A. Helicopter began flying two months ago, carrying cargo on demand for firms that needed delivery to LAX in 7 1/2 minutes.

The major courier services and airlines themselves are using the service, according to Wickman. The helicopter service began carrying passengers June 15 and promises flights from each stop every 50 minutes during daylight hours, with an eventual goal of every 30 minutes.

It is currently operating half a dozen flights daily to each destination.

The company claims that the Aerospatiale AS 350 is the world’s quietest helicopter. Though there are no noise regulations aimed at helicopters, Wickman says L.A. Helicopter showed the equipment off to local aviation authorities. “We put ‘em on the ground and hovered at 500 feet, and they couldn’t hear us,” according to Wickman.

No complaints yet at the Burbank airport, according to Victor Gill, manager of community relations: “So far, so good.”