Less Holiday Air Traffic
In a report to the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday, Jim Brundige, the East Hampton Airport manager, said that the number of planes landing at or departing from the airport during the Fourth of July holiday period, from June 28 through July 8, were notably fewer than the number using the airport during the same period last year. The “total operations” over the recent holiday week numbered 921, he said; last year there were 1,913 operations — takeoffs or landings — during the June 29 to July 9 holiday period.
He attributed at least some of the difference to the rainy weather preceding July 4 this year.
Of the 921 takeoffs or landings this year, 13 of them violated an 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew that pilots are asked to voluntarily follow. Nine of the 13 takeoffs or landings outside curfew hours took place within 30 minutes of the curfew. Those “grossly violating curfew,” Mr. Brundige detailed in a printed report to the board, included a plane landing at 1:16 a.m. on Saturday, a takeoff just after midnight on Sunday, and an arrival at 5:44 a.m. on Monday.
In 2012, 38 pilots ignored the requested curfew hours over the holiday week, with 26 of them classified as “grossly violating curfew.”
At the meeting on Tuesday, Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione credited the increased compliance to Mr. Brundige’s efforts to contact the owners and operators of planes that land during East Hampton’s curfew hours with a written request that they respect the town’s wishes.
Also at the meeting Tuesday, Mr. Brundige and Mr. Stanzione presented data showing that complaints logged into an automated complaint system over the holiday weekend, from July 3 to 8, this year were notably lower than the number from last year.
Forty-two complaints were received in 2012 from households outside of East Hampton; this year there were 26 complaints.
Complaints called in from households within East Hampton over the July Fourth holiday weekend numbered only 9 this year; last year there were 30.