By Lindsay Press
The Town of East Hampton said it is looking to reach a settlement with the East Hampton Airport. A majority of the complaints from the residents focused on noise, air traffic, and effects on the environment.
In 2024, a court declared that the East Hampton Airport could remain open. However, the airport’s location and flight path are so close to many residential neighborhoods, as well as East Hampton Village, which are exposed to plane noise during landings and takeoffs.
The airport has tried to work with residents and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the past, which would offer a better relationship with the town’s residents and still benefit the airport. In 2022, East Hampton Town lowered the amount of traffic by transforming the airport from a public airport to a private one, which would have to work under Prior Permission Required (PPR) restrictions.
“A regulatory status change was required before the Town could do that,” said town spokesperson Patrick Derenze, “As a part of the process to change the airport’s status, the prior public-use airport was deactivated in accordance with FAA regulations, while a new private-use designation for the airport took its place,” as a result of a court injunction.
However, because of the injunction, “the town did not implement the planned use restrictions that were developed several years ago during the community engagement process and with the help of the Town’s consultants,” Derenze said.
Derenze said that “aviation interests” — that is, “users of the airport and national [and] regional that advocate for broad airport access,” whether through lobbying or litigation — challenged the town’s action to make the airport privately run.
Citing a survey taken in 2022, Derenze noted the town was never trying to permanently close the airport. According to the survey, a majority of the town’s residents agreed that they were not aiming to permanently close the airport, but were more interested in altering take-off and landing times due to the air traffic noise that came with planes and helicopters.