The scenario seems impossible: The clock has just struck 4:25 p.m. and you need to make a flight out of JFK at 5:45 p.m., but traffic is reported to be dense enough to cause hour-long delays just getting out of the city. There is no time for a cab or the subway.

As of yesterday, there’s a new answer: a flight by helicopter.

Call New York City’s new helicopter service, U.S. Helicopter, and after about three minutes you have a ticket for about $144, including taxes and fees. Arrive at the Downtown Heliport on the East River at 4:50 p.m., when the helicopter is about to take off. Check-in lasts one minute and the security check takes only another four even when you are randomly selected for extra screening.

After a quick security briefing, you are escorted onto the windy helipad to load up. With its blades beating at low speed, the sleek, blue Sikorsky S-76 strikes a handsome outline against the choppy waters of Lower Manhattan.

At exactly 5 p.m., the rotorcraft smoothly lifts off, rising up and over Governor’s Island, across the colorful brownstone neighborhoods of Brooklyn, toward JFK. The light is orange and Manhattan quickly becomes the distant, iconic skyline of postcards.

The interior of the helicopter, which holds eight passengers, is like that of a private jet, with comfortable, tan-colored seats and cup holders with gold-colored metallic finish. The flight is all about speed – the helicopter cruises at 1,000 feet at 150 knots (about 60 miles per hour).

Take-off to landing lasts six minutes and thirty seconds and your bags are checked through to your destination. You’ve already been through security. The miracle has come true: You are clearly in time for your flight.

On the inaugural day of the new service, interest appeared to be low. On the 5 p.m. flight were three passengers, two of whom were reporters. The third, who asked that his name not be printed, said he was an executive at a financial services company in Lower Manhattan. He travels to Europe once a week, so when he recently saw an ad for the new service he said he made a reservation to see if it proved a better alternative to the car service he usually took. The difference in price was minimal, he said.

In the first phase of the service, the company is flying only from the Lower Manhattan heliport to JFK’s terminal nine, which is home to domestic and international American Airlines flights. The financial services executive was traveling on British Airways and had to leave security and take the AirTrain to terminal eight. The extra trip would add at least a half hour onto his trip, he said.

U.S. Helicopter plans to add service to La Guardia and Newark airports in later phases of the project, as well as begin flights out of the 34th Street heliport and start services to other terminals, U.S. Helicopter officials said.

The chief executive officer of the company, Jerry Murphy, hailed the new service as the beginning of a new era of convenience for the city’s economic elite. Using the slogan “You are too important to wait,” he said the company expected to transport 150,000 passengers during the course of the year.

Helicopter flights out of the city are nothing new to New Yorkers. Many businesses fly their own helicopters from the roofs of their corporate buildings and there are companies that offer helicopter sightseeing tours around the city. Scheduled helicopter service was last offered in 1979 by New York Airways, who closed up not long after an accident on the former Pan Am Building near Grand Central Terminal. In 1977, a helicopter tipped over and killed four passengers on the helipad and one woman on the street below.

U.S. Helicopter’s service is the first “scheduled, reliable, fast, and affordable helicopter transportation between Manhattan and local airports” in two decades, according to the company. There are 12 flights to the airport and 12 flights back to Manhattan every day, beginning at 7 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m.

Starting May 1, ticket prices increase to $159.