Letters

No man is an island — and neither is an airport. Your recent webinar and news articles discussing the debate over the fate of the East Hampton Airport [“Express Sessions: Panelists Discuss The Future Of The East Hampton Airport,” 27east.com, March 24] is not irrelevant to us denizens west of the Shinnecock Canal.

The debate has taken on a newfound intensity recently, inasmuch as East Hampton has decided to eschew the subsidies from the Federal Aviation Administration, which demand that recipient airports remain open to all aviation, no matter what. Beginning in less than two years, the Town of East Hampton will, arguably, have the ability to shut down or materially curtail that airport’s operations.

Now, admittedly, there are reasonable arguments on both sides, but space limitations prevent a salient comparison of the issues here. What is incontrovertibly true, though, is that any enforced reduction in levels of operation at that airport will negatively impact Gabreski Airport and the traffic levels around Westhampton and Quogue. Why? Because there are no public airports on Long Island in between Gabreski and East Hampton. If you want to fly into or out of eastern Long Island — commonly known as the Hamptons — you will need to fly into one of these two airports.

East Hampton’s airport currently supports about 29,000 operations (departures and landings) annually. Gabreski, as a bigger airport, with three runways and the Air National Guard, currently supports about 65,000 operations annually (ignoring COVID impacts).

So, if East Hampton Airport were to shut down, those 29,000 flights would likely migrate to the closest alternative — which is Gabreski. If 75 percent of those flights migrated to Gabreski, that would increase the air traffic in and around Westhampton/Quogue by about 33 percent.

In other words, that would be over 21,000 additional flights, or an increase of 60 flights a day! Such increase is material under any standard of comparison and will ramp up the local community’s anger and resistance to the noise and pollution caused by the aircraft. And this doesn’t include any “last mile” helicopter service that might ensue from ultra-canale residents and visitors flying into Gabreski and taking a helicopter to East Hampton or nearby environs.

Not to be too philosophical here, but we can’t help dwelling upon local interconnectivity as expressed in John Donne’s famous meditation: “If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.” Today, ironically, that might be expressed as: “If a small airport is shut down, Westhampton/Quogue is the less.”

And, over the next two years, if the bell does finally toll for the East Hampton Airport, the denizens of Westhampton and Quogue should never ask for whom that bell tolls — it tolls for thee.

Mark J. Schulte

Quogue