The Helicopter Association International (HAI) is urging its members to voice strong opposition to draft air tour management plans (ATMPs) that would eliminate helitours altogether in South Dakota over both the Mount Rushmore National Monument and Badlands National Park and severely limit them at two locations in Hawaii; the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island and the Haleakalā National Park on Maui. Members are urged to comment before the June 20 deadline.
HAI maintains that the FAA and the National Park Service prepared the ATMPs without regard to the economic impact of the decision and in a manner that was biased against helitours in general. It further maintains that the limiting rules, that would slash air tours by 86 percent at Volcanoes National Park and by 50 percent at Haleakalā, impose burdensome additional costs to operators and, in some cases, increase the noise profile over residential areas and endanger safety.
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