Save the Airport

Now that the United States Supreme Court has refused to review a lower court’s decision on local control of East Hampton Airport, the big question is what will happen next. This is a delicate moment; public outrage after another summer of aircraft noise could lead to a confrontation that could, in the end, most hurt the aviation industry itself.

Town officials are pursuing Federal Aviation Administration approval for the restrictions the lower court rejected, but this may be difficult to achieve. Meanwhile, helicopters and other loud aircraft will come and go, infuriating residents, irritating visitors, and adding to pressure on officials to do something about it once and for all.

There was a time when no one would declare in public that the airport be shut down and the land repurposed. Now such thoughts have moved from the margins to the mainstream.

Those who favor an airport without limits — mostly the New York helicopter companies — argue that its opponents are merely those who bought land nearby. This is an oversimplification intended to discredit the critics and deflect attention from the very real issues that airport traffic creates for people in a much greater area. 

North Fork residents have in recent times become among the loudest voices, decrying the too-frequent helicopter service. People in Sagaponack and other parts of Southampton Town have added to the chorus of complaints as well. Indeed, jet aircraft often roar toward the airport from the east, after having turned low over East Hampton Main Street, which was laid out by colonists from England in 1648 or so. Clearly, this is a region-wide and long-coming problem, not something created lately by a small group who live close to the airport and may — reasonably, it needs to be said — be worried about property values. 

It is important to note that in 2015, record money from out-of-town helicopter companies was spent on behalf of Republicans in a local election in which that party’s candidates went down in a historic and humbling defeat. The rout was so complete that even Republican town trustees, who are at the far end of the ballot, suffered unheard-of losses. That election should be interpreted as a referendum on the airport, in which an overwhelming majority of East Hampton voters soundly rejected the party most closely aligned with it.

Aviation industry interests and their sympathizers might want to fob off the opposition as a not-in-my-backyard crowd, but when that backyard includes tens of thousands of affected people on the North and South Forks, drastic measures that were once unthinkable become thinkable. Until the companies enriching themselves at East Hampton Airport earnestly try to help find solutions to noise, they are only exacerbating the risk that they could lose the facility entirely. This would mean financial harm for them and an unacceptable blow to hobbyist pilots who base their not-so-noisy aircraft there as well. The industry does not seem to get it and, instead, opposes sensible regulations with never-ending litigation.

East Hampton Airport should be saved. It is up to the very people now abusing the community’s hospitality to act differently to assure that it continues to operate for the long term.