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By Bloomberg

DHL Express introduced a helicopter service moving parcels between London’s Heathrow airport and the Canary Wharf financial district today as it accelerates delivery times to win business from rivals including FedEx Corp.

The chopper will fly between Heathrow’s cargo terminal and the Vanguard helipad on the Isle of Dogs once a day and follows similar services in New York -- introduced in the 1970s and linking lower Manhattan with the city’s John F. Kennedy airport -- and Los Angeles, which began in May, John Pearson, the head of DHL Express’s operations in Europe, said in an interview.

The introduction of helicopter flights will shave vital minutes off the journey time between Europe’s biggest aviation hub in west London and Canary Wharf in the east by bypassing snarled roads in the center of the capital. That will allow DHL, a unit of Deutsche Post AG, to shave as much as a day off outbound delivery times by catching earlier flights.

“This is not a marketing twist, this is an investment in customer relationship,” Pearson said, adding that the move will make DHL “the only game in town” for banks and institutions that need the fastest possible deliveries.

DHL claims a 34 percent market share in time-definite international express shipments globally, and 41 percent in Europe. The figures are higher for banks, Pearson said, with Barclays Plc, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Merrill Lynch among institutions with offices in Canary Wharf.

Internet Threat

Express-delivery companies including FedEx and United Parcel Service Inc. are seeking new ways to secure market share as Internet sales specialists such as Amazon.com, Google Inc. and EBay Inc. roll out their own in-house services.

A fourth helicopter service will be added in Chicago in the few weeks, and the overall number could double in the next five or 10 years, Pearson said.

With a payload of 300 kilograms, the London service will be able to carry between 600 and 800 documents at a time, with the client base likely to comprise about 10 customers.

A single Bell Jet Ranger helicopter in DHL’s yellow and red livery is under lease from Heli Charter Ltd., a subsidiary of Providence, Rhode Island-based Textron Inc., which owns Bell.

While the service is more costly for DHL, the expense is built into the pricing it has in place with customers, Pearson said, adding that other companies can access it for a premium.