Deal to halve tourist helicopter flights over New York

New York

AFTER decades of complaints about noise and air pollution from the tens of thousands of tourist helicopter flights that circle Manhattan each year, New York City announced a deal on Sunday that would cut their number in half by January 2017.

In addition, the helicopters, as familiar a site on the city's waterfront as sea gulls and joggers, will not fly on Sundays starting April 1 and will be banned from flying over Governors Island and Staten Island. In waterfront parks across the city, activists have measured noise readings in excess of 75 decibels, louder than a vacuum cleaner.