Commercial Flights In Focus, But Not Airport Closure

Members of the East Hampton Town Board hinted this week that they are leaning toward embracing changes at East Hampton Airport that would significantly alter the number and type of aircraft that use the facility, rather than closing it outright.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said publicly that he is in favor of imposing curfews and new restrictions that will “reduce or eliminate” commercial helicopter and jet traffic at the airport, but not in favor of closing the airport entirely from the outset.

And Councilman Jeff Bragman also floated his own proposed approach: a complete halt of commercial traffic at the airport for one year, giving the Town Board the opportunity to see how forcing chartered jets, helicopters and seaplanes elsewhere would shake out for the East Hampton community.

The one-year “commercial traffic holiday,” as he called it, would give the town time to measure the actual impacts on various sectors of the community, without a permanent commitment.

“I think it would help people to understand if there were any real impacts to the economy, which I’m skeptical of, frankly,” Bragman said. “It would also let us monitor what, if any, impacts Montauk experienced and deal with it, because we could adjust as we went along. At the end of the day anything would be on the table.”

The Town Board has been compiling studies, legal guidance and public input with an eye toward deciding the future of the airport’s operations now that the federal grant assurances have expired, giving the town the power to close the airport, either permanently or temporarily, and then reopen it with a new policy on flights.

Attorneys for the town are due to present a package of possible restrictions to the Town Board at the October 19 work session.

Those opposed to closing the airport have argued — and spent large sums of money supporting — that the airport is an important economic driver and that without it some wealthy travelers may go elsewhere. They’ve also warned that if HTO, the airport’s call sign, closes, many of the flights that go there now will seek out alternatives in the region, like water landings in local bays and shifting to currently more lightly used landing strips like the Meadow Lane helipad in Southampton Village and Montauk Airport.

Van Scoyoc said that he thinks the town can effectively “dial back” the airport’s traffic in ways that will not spread the impacts of its traffic to Montauk. In a statement released on Monday, he did not say exactly what restrictions he would like to see adopted by the Town Board but made clear, like Bragman, that he sees a focus on commercial aircraft as the most effective way forward.

“I propose that we immediately impose curfews and take other similar steps that we know will not cause air traffic from East Hampton Airport to be diverted to the Montauk Airport,” he said in the statement. “Additional restrictions that will target specific aircraft operations that cause the most pain and disruption to our residents will follow … I anticipate that by the end of January, depending on what the final results of our studies show, we will largely reduce or eliminate commercial helicopter and jet traffic, preventing the need to close the East Hampton Airport completely.”

He also said that he has been in contact with the owners of Montauk Airport and is “optimistic that we will resolve that diversion issue.”

The Montauk Airport has been listed for sale for years. The asking price has ranged as high at $18 million. Residents of Montauk have implored the town to purchase the property.

Montauk residents have become among the largest and most vocal segment of the local population opposing the closure or significant restriction of flights at HTO, because of the fear that a large number of those flights, by helicopters especially, will shift their flight plans and noise impacts east to Montauk.

At a campaign discussion in the past week, none of the candidates for Town Council said that they support a permanent closure of the airport, and all alluded to banning commercial aircraft from the airport at various levels.

Consultants who recently led the series of public input sessions, which garnered hundreds of comments from residents and those with interest in the airport, told the Town Board that the vast majority of comments garnered were in favor of keeping the airport open, but with new restrictions on the flights there to mitigate noise impacts.

According to the survey results of the more than 270 people who participated in the four meetings over two weeks last month, 80 percent said that the status quo at the airport is not acceptable. But of those who agreed that the status quo could not be allowed to continue, only 20 percent said they were in favor of closing the airport entirely.

“A lot of people who want to close the airport suggested that there are other uses for the airport property that could benefit the town,” consultant Peter Flinker said. “Some people want to focus on strong curfews and restrictions on operations. I think the [most popular] idea was to ban helicopters, then banning all helicopters and jets. But it seems to be the larger helicopters that most people react to most strongly.”

Even local pilots sad they were in favor of new limitations on the largest helicopters and jets, Flinker said, as well as “rationing landings” for the commercial shuttle companies.

While the airport has long been the target of ire from those who live under flight paths of even small propeller planes, the surge in popularity of charter helicopter shuttles spurred by companies like Blade that have facilitated booking individual seats has been blamed for the crescendo of cries for action at the airport in the last decade — to the point that they may be victims of their own success.

“I think we all recognize at this point that the East Hampton Airport has outgrown the footprint that the community will accept,” Van Scoyoc said during a campaign forum this week. “It’s morphed into a major regional commuter hub and I don’t believe that’s compatible with the vision for what East Hampton should be and has been in the past.”