Sunday, May 15, 2022

In East Hampton, It’s the Superrich Against the Merely Rich

Plans would limit commercial helicopters; private planes could still land. Residents say noisy skies perturb naps and barbecues.


A plane prepares for takeoff from the airport in East Hampton, New York. 


The Wall Street Journal 
By James Fanelli
May 15, 2022 10:17 am ET


The Hamptons have long been an enclave for Wall Streeters and celebrities, with pristine beaches, estates hidden behind tall hedges and, increasingly, the thrum of private jets and helicopters overhead.

So many visitors travel the 100 miles from Manhattan by air that the tiny airport in the wealthy town of East Hampton has helicopters or planes landing or taking off every 90 seconds on some summer days. Locals say the noise disturbs their barbecues and drowns out conversations.

At a town meeting last July, Ronald Klausner described how the roar of low-flying jets woke two of his young grandchildren from their naps at his Hamptons home, leaving them cranky the rest of the afternoon.

“They may have been scared a little by the clown in the Southampton Independence Day parade, but it was nothing compared to what happened yesterday,” Mr. Klausner, a private investor, told the crowd. “I don’t want any parent or grandparent to have to endure that.”

But the town’s planned solution, to limit flights into the East Hampton airport, has led to a vociferous, only-in-New York legal battle that divides the town’s superrich from the merely rich.

Ahead of the busy summer season, the town is moving to privatize its airport and impose new restrictions on how often planes can fly in. The rules would limit a plane or helicopter to one takeoff and landing a day.

Those who own private planes won’t be affected, so long as they don’t try to use their personal jets more than once a day. On the other hand, the rules would crimp the travel of those who may not be rich enough to have their own planes, but who are willing to pay $800 or more to take a commercial helicopter from Manhattan. The companies that provide helicopter and plane rides would have to divert many of their flights to other landing areas in the Hamptons.


A helicopter from Blade flying near Manhattan.


East Hampton is taking its airport “back to aviation’s stone age,” said a shared-flight service, Blade Air Mobility Inc., in a court filing. Blade is a plaintiff in one of at least three lawsuits filed to stop the town from implementing the plan. It has a business model similar to Uber Technologies Inc. but with helicopters and planes. Without the restrictions, an aircraft in its network might do up to six flights a day to the East Hampton airport.

Those challenging the town’s plan are asking a state court to issue a preliminary injunction against it. A judge is expected to rule on that before May 17.

The hubub comes after years of complaints about the noise and the environmental effects from the air traffic.

“I put my hammock away 12 years ago,” said Barry Raebeck, who lives about a mile and a half from the airport.

Prior to East Hampton’s airport decision, Mr. Raebeck, a retired high school English teacher who runs a college-admissions consulting business, formed a coalition that pressed for change. He said incessant flight noise in the summer has driven him indoors for his afternoon naps, and they now also require wearing headphones.

On the other side is jet traveler Andy Sabin, the chairman of Sabin Metal Corp., who has lived full time in the Hamptons for 31 years. He said that with the privatization strategy, town officials are catering to the gripes of a small group.

“It’s .01% of the population making those complaints. It’s insane,” said Mr. Sabin, who owns a share of three jets that he uses for travel and to fly in business associates.

Andy Sabin, who owns a share of three planes, says only a small minority of residents complain about noise from the airport.


Mr. Sabin recently flew to Washington to meet members of Congress about an environmental bill he is pushing. In the evening, he said, he flew from Dulles International Airport to White Plains, N.Y., to drop off a friend, and for his final leg flew home to East Hampton.

“I was exhausted after dinner with the senators,” Mr. Sabin said. “Having the airport in East Hampton made my life easier.”

He is a plaintiff in one of the suits against the town. He said he paid about $7,000 to local newspapers to run ads shaming officials over the airport plan.

Mr. Sabin said some people also complain about cars and the horns from trains. “We live in a world of nut jobs,” he said.

East Hampton’s small airport has a single terminal building but a runway long enough for some large private and corporate jets. The runway is sometimes used 400 times a day in the busy season, the town’s airport director said. In court documents, the town said public input and several studies informed its decision. One study showed that from late June through September in 2019, flights generated 46,730 noise complaints.

The town’s plan is to close the airport on May 17 and reopen it two days later as a private facility, with new rules that include a curfew in addition to the limit of one landing and takeoff a day per aircraft.

A jet flies over Barry Raebeck’s home. Mr. Raebeck says airport noise has driven him indoors for his afternoon naps.


Tailwind Air LLC, which flies up to six scheduled flights to the Hamptons on a Friday in the summer, plans to land seaplanes more frequently in the water along the shores of eastern Long Island instead of at the East Hampton airport. In some cases, boats will then ferry passengers to land, said Alan Ram, Tailwind’s chief executive.

“Sometimes they’re disembarked at a beach rather than a dock, so they’re advised to take their shoes off,” Mr. Ram said.

The spat has spilled into other Hamptons communities such as Montauk, which worry they’ll become the destination of flights that can’t land in East Hampton. A citizens group has been speaking out and says on its website, “Montauk in Crisis: We need your help!”

Some locals have suggested the town of East Hampton should use the airport’s 600 acres for something entirely different, like affordable housing or a project to benefit the environment.

Patricia Currie, a year-round Hamptons resident, said wealthy jet-setters could drive like everyone else. “They could do what we’ve all done for years and years and years,” she said.

25 comments:

  1. That contest needs an Elon Musk autonomous SpaceX-designed barge for the helicopters to land on. Seaplanes could taxi to a dock attached to the sheltered leeward side of the barge and the boat operators hauling seaplane passengers would have seaplane AND helicopter passengers supporting their enterprise.

    "You can't anchor that barge there! they would say, but the answer would be that no anchor is out, we are actively station keeping, with the docking side facing leeward.

    Then file a FAA permit request for future rocket landings there using the Starship rocket being developed in Texas, as a twice daily commuter service...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You might notice that there are no FAA rules for landing on a barge or ship. Most yachts that allow helicopter landings are foreign registered. It is a large issue in Miami, San Francisco, and Seattle as they are bypassing city laws by using barges.

      Delete
    2. Using a barge to take advantage of gaps in the law would be glorious for making a point. Learning about and using the law like that was a cinematic hit scene in Walking Tall, where the Sheriff read the rule book and made alternate office arrangements:
      https://youtu.be/hmFZ4OrappE

      Delete
    3. looks like most of the whiners commenting are Republican rich users ofo the airport. There are many middle class people living and working here and this article misrepresents the larger community who are not ultra wealthy people who use the airport.

      Delete
  2. This is insane. The .01% whining just because they don't like Aviation. The Airport was there first. The .01% must have inherited their wealth because they
    are not exactly Entrepreneur's.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The airport was there first.

    End of discussion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL....sorry, there's a limit. Residents and their quality of life take priority.over rich boobs like Mr Sabin.

      Delete
    2. "LOL....sorry, there's a limit. Residents and their quality of life take priority.over rich boobs like Mr Sabin."

      Your words are duly noted (as are those who think like you). So when the government comes for your home under the imminent domain clause because it is in the way of their EV grid infrastructure even though "it was there first", then we will not expect a PEEP out of your mouth. Be careful what you wish for when looking over the fence of other people's battles.

      Delete
  4. These people are just angry in life and looking for excuses to be angry at something.
    Literally complaining about grandchildren being woken up by jet noise. Lord forbid, what would have happened if Fido had barked. Would he have put the dog down because it made the grandbabies cranky??? Wow. This is just asinine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL. None of these whiners are dog owners. At best they are cat owners.

      Delete
    2. Hey! As a non-rich cat owner, I take offense to that 🤣

      Delete
    3. I love cats and have had several. It just sounded good!

      Delete
  5. The liberals in Washington should designate East Hampton as the first drop off spot for all the illegal immigrants crossing our southern borders. I would support that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are illegal aliens still being flown into Long Island Airport?

      Delete
    2. ^^A watchdog who is on top of these flights told me they are still being flown around the nation. He tracked one flight into one of the suburban major southeast private/corporate airport not long ago. The government operatives behind this know they are being watched and they are getting more evasive according to him after that exposed video by a whistleblower of illegals being offloaded from a chartered jet. They are using private jets for charters to fly from central areas of the nation after the illegals have been bused to them. So for example nobody would really pay attention to a 1AM flight landing at one of said FBO airports (FBO closed hours and everyone is asleep) from Las Vegas in a Bombardier Global Express. This is all happening in the middle of the night (or if you are Jen Psaki making her usual excuses, "early morning hours").

      Delete
  6. My favorite bit is the guy with three planes flying to Washington to promote his "environmental" bill...then polluting the skies to White Plains and finally to the Hamptons, where he is "exhausted" -- ostensibly from his hypocrisy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Three planes? Want to bet he'll lecture you on climate change? LOL!
      Three planes and can't even buy a pair of pants that fit.

      Delete
    2. And he writing it all off thru his company.

      Delete
  7. I have to say I am a commercial pilot. But the gripes of the super-rich are falling on my deaf ears. Are the bizjets disturbing your nappy time? OH, YOU POOR DISADVANTAGED SOUL! I'm choking up.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Santa Monica Airport was able to shorten their runway by 1500 feet to push jet traffic to nearby Van Nuys Airport.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Which was there first- the houses or the airport? If you buy a house under an airport's approach path and complain about noise, you are stupid.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mr. Sabin stated we live in a world of nutjobs. That is a little severe, but I agree we live in a world of whiners.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I find this battle spurious as the real problem is the "superrich" men flying their wives and girlfriends in on separate flights. Why can't these women enjoy each other's company, knowing they share the love of the same man?

    ReplyDelete
  12. “the town…should use the…600 acres for…..affordable housing…”
    Omg, too funny. Imagine “affordable housing” in East Hampton. Wouldn’t you love to see the faces of that Woke Ivory Tower crowd when the first mobile home rolls into the airport?

    ReplyDelete
  13. I live a mile from the airport and have no complaints. It's an airport. If you live next to it and you're complaining you should move. The town will NEVER be able to maintain the airport from little private planes landing once a day. How is anyone going to learn how to fly with a rule that says one landing and take off a day? No night landing? So you can't take a trip to Vermont or anywhere too far for a day trip because you have to be back before dark? Really? 95% of locals have NO complaints about the airport. Affordable housing suggestion is laughable. Luxury townhouses or condos at prices unobtainable by the working class is more likely. Bet all the complainers have flown somewhere in the last 6 months, or will be this fall. Just as long as it's not in their backyard.

    ReplyDelete