East 34th Street Heliport

East 34th Street Heliport is a heliport on the east side of Manhattan located on the East River Greenway, between the East River and the FDR Drive viaduct. Also known as the Atlantic Metroport at East 34th Street, it is a public heliport owned by New York City and run by the Economic Development Corporation.HistoryThe East 34th Street Heliport opened on the site of the original East 34th Street Ferry Landing in 1972, providing charter, commuter, and sightseeing flights, and served as a replacement for the heliport atop the Pan Am Building, which closed in 1968 before reopening for 3 months in 1977, ending in a May helicopter crash that killed 5.During the 1980s and early 1990s, New York Helicopter operated frequent scheduled services from the Heliport to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. Fourteen-seat turbine-powered Sikorsky S-58T helicopters were used on this service.After several residential high rises were developed in the neighborhood in the 1980s, the city was pressured into reducing helicopter traffic in the area. Sightseeing flights were banned from the heliport in 1997. In 1998, operations were further restricted by limiting flights from 8 am to 8 pm on weekdays and from 10 am to 6 pm on weekends. Weekend flights were banned altogether later in the year.US Helicopter began providing regularly scheduled passenger service from the East 34th Street Heliport to John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport in 2007, but shut down operations in September 2009. As of November 2009, it was uncertain if or when scheduled shuttle service would start up again.