Charles Alcock is managing editor of the AIN Media Group, having rejoined the company in 2019. He has been an aviation journalist since 1986, and previously worked for AIN from 1990 to 2017, most recently as editor-in-chief. His main focus is on covering new aviation technology and business models, as well as international news.
Having been raised in the London area, Alcock studied at the University of Manchester in the UK and earned an honors degree in Politics and Modern History. He speaks English and French, and some German.

Managing Editor

Located less than three miles from the heart of America's third most populous city,&nbsp;Vertiport Chicago seems as if it would be just the type of ground infrastructure that eVTOL aircraft operators are crying out for. And yet the Windy City hasn't featured on the target list for possible early adopters of the type of air transportation service being offered by pioneers such as Joby, Archer, Lilium, and Volocopter.
One factor could be that the Midwest's harsh winters&nbsp;will prove challenging to the new aircraft. Their developers appear not to have a plan for getting approval for them to operate in known icing conditions, which&nbsp;can be easily avoided in locations such as Los Angeles and Miami.
But the private owner/operator of Vertiport Chicago, which goes by the call sign 43IL, isn't discouraged.&nbsp;“Almost all organizations entering the eVTOL space have visited us," said Daniel Mojica, the 10-acre facility’s executive director. "They realize that there is so much to consider when building and designing infrastructure."
Real estate developer Paul Beitler first proposed a Chicago vertiport for helicopters in 1993. The FAA began funding vertiport studies in 1988,&nbsp;and the facility&nbsp;officially opened&nbsp;in 2015.
“Our founders were paradigm shifters when they thought about this space 15 years ago,” Mojica told FutureFlight. “There was always an understanding about an addition to the infrastructure. We are preapproved to build a second hangar. It would be 25,000 sq ft, roughly the same size as the 30,000-sq-ft hangar we have now. And we can add a second office building to our site. We knew that power could be added, and there is certainly enough space to build that.”&nbsp;
The vertiport, which borders Union Pacific’s 100-acre intermodal facility, is at 1339 S. Wood St., between Chicago’s downtown South Loop and the near west side, 2.5 miles west of Lake Michigan and adjacent to the Illinois Medical District.&nbsp;“We’re nearly a mile and a half from everything, including the United Center, major highways, and the booming West Loop where major corporations such as Google and McDonald’s University are locating," Mojica said. "I can see McCormick Place [Chicago’s lakefront convention center]&nbsp;out my office window."
Chicago's vertiport has the capacity to park eight helicopters on the ramp and up to 17 overall. It is open 24/7 and&nbsp;has an 11,700-sq-ft passenger terminal with a VIP entrance&nbsp;and a 22,000-gallon fuel farm.
Several tenants have their own aircraft maintenance technicians on site. Current regular clients include Helicopters Inc., Elite Rotorcraft, Breeze Helicopters, and the helicopter programs associated with the adjacent hospitals, which include Jesse Brown Veterans Administration, Rush Chicago, University of Illinois Chicago, and Stroger Cook County Hospital. Lurie Children’s Hospital also uses the vertiport in bad weather, as opposed to attempting landings on the hospital's elevated helipad.&nbsp;
While all customers are important, Mojica said, he is particularly proud of the vertiport’s ability to service helicopter air ambulances. He noted that&nbsp;the facility is working with at least one medical tenant to explore the development of an instrument approach. Other regular users of the vertiport include the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Canadian Air Force.&nbsp;
Helicopters Inc. will soon begin regular per-seat operations for Blade from the facility, it was announced earlier this year. Most of that traffic is expected to be to O’Hare International Airport (ORD), which, while a comparatively short distance, can otherwise be a ground livery ride that can take several hours, depending on the traffic. Charter operators already provide service from the vertiport to O’Hare, landing at the helipad there and then providing a short&nbsp;car ride to O’Hare Terminal 5.
Other popular charter destinations from the vertiport include customers' summer homes in southern Wisconsin and southwest Michigan. Travelers even use the vertiport for links to close-by Midway Airport, due to Chicago’s ubiquitous gridlock on the ground. “They will take that four-minute flight, especially if they need to be back in New York or London the same day,” Mojica said.
He noted that the vertiport also regularly arranges VIP transportation to DuPage and Chicago Executive airports and added that the vertiport’s ability to handle regular charter traffic to a variety of destinations would segue well into any future eVTOL operations. Mojica declined to say whether any prospective eVTOL customers had approached the vertiport with regard to managing potential satellite locations. “We’re already landing folks at different locations, resorts, and destinations without having an actual eVTOL operator,” he said.&nbsp;
While adding acreage to the site is not currently anticipated, Mojica said several adjacent lots could be incorporated, should the need arise.&nbsp;Bringing in additional electrical power via the intermodal lot next door would not be problematic, moreover.
Evidently, noise isn’t much of an issue, due to the vertiport’s location. “When they built this place, they had to run a decibel test and found out that the Chicago Transit Authority’s elevated&nbsp;passenger trains are actually louder than most helicopters that come here,” explained&nbsp;Mojica, who handles any noise complaints.
The vertiport has noise-abatement procedures, and unlike facilities in New York and Los Angeles, generally receives good political support. Mojica said that city leaders have actively encouraged the vertiport's owner to seek expansion.
The vertiport is considered critical infrastructure and remained open 24/7 during the pandemic&nbsp;even as overall flight activity plummeted.&nbsp;“In 2019, we had 10,400 movements, a 21 percent increase over 2018,” Mojica said. “The pandemic came and things shifted a bit, obviously.”&nbsp;
Not only did Covid-19&nbsp;cut regular flight operations, but it fundamentally shifted the customer mix. Before the pandemic, air tourism accounted for 70 percent of all vertiport movements. Now, helicopter air ambulance flights account&nbsp;for 60 percent, with private aircraft and charter accounting for 25 percent&nbsp;and the remainder split between parapublic services and what little air tourism remains.
“The good news is that overall traffic is coming back and we get several air tour requests every day,” Mojica said, adding that flight operations could be back to 2019 levels by year-end. “I am very confident we will beat the 2020 numbers, and it is not impossible to get close to the 2019 numbers once Blade service begins. It’s just a matter of properly educating all the potential users in the area and finding the right partners.”

Charles Alcock

Chicago's vertiport opened in 2015 and the 10-acre site has space to take new types of operators, including those using eVTOL aircraft. (Photo: Vertiport Chicago)

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