> But even so, there's clearly demand for helicopter transfers to airports

I mean, maybe some? How much? For instance, to take Paris, the example from the article. You can apparently get a helicopter from Paris to CDG for 4000 euro, taking 17 minutes (from a not-particularly-central point). Last time I was in Paris, the RER took 30 minutes from the airport to the center, and cost a couple of euro.

I'm sceptical that helicopters to airports could ever be a huge business, even if you cut the price by ten times.