Change in Landing Fees

A proposed change in how landing fees are calculated for aircraft using East Hampton Airport will result in a 15-percent increase in revenue to the airport this year — enough to cover just over $212,098 in unexpected or increased airport expenses that were not budgeted for this year.

The change — basing fees solely on aircraft weight, regardless of whether the plane is a rotary or fixed-wing craft — will align the town airport’s fee structure with the systems commonly used at other airports, according to Town Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who proposed it.

Adjustments to landing fees over the years have “unintentionally created certain discrepancies,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, which have been brought to the town’s attention by many airport users, including the Friends of the East Hampton Airport coalition, which is among the plaintiffs suing the town over recently enacted airport access restrictions designed to reduce bothersome aircraft noise.

The councilwoman said she would ask the board to approve the fee change at its meeting next Thursday.

In addition to snow plowing — the cost of which came in at $53,300 over budget after last winter’s repeated storms — payments to several contractors providing services for the airport, including noise monitoring and air traffic control, rose above the expected amounts this year, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.

The new rates would impose a graduated fee based on weight, per thousand pounds, beginning at $10 per thousand for craft that weigh 2,600 to 4,999 pounds, and topping out at $20 per thousand pounds for aircraft that weigh 25,000 pounds or more. Light craft under 2,600 pounds would incur no charge.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell indicated his agreement with the shift. “I think it’s a matter of approach here that airport users and operators be paying for the airport,” he said, “and this is consistent with that.”