Study assesses impact of closing East Hampton Airport: Mattituck cited as an alternative

The Town of East Hampton is contemplating closing or modifying its airport. According to the results of a new study, flights serving the East End could divert to neighboring airports — including Mattituck, Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, Montauk Airport and Southampton Heliport — if the East Hampton airport shuttered or curtailed operations.

The study was conducted by environmental and transportation engineering firm Harris Miller Miller & Hanson and is available on the Town of East Hampton website.

In March 2020, after years of protests by East End residents, including Shelter Island, over deafening noise in their communities from Manhattan to East Hampton helicopter flights, pilots were instructed to take routes over water and not residential neighborhoods to solve the problems.

The routes are from Manhattan east over Long Island Sound, around the tip of the North Fork, over the eastern side of the South Fork and into East Hampton.

When news reached Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, he criticized the report for turning “a blind eye to zoning,” causing the analysis to fall “well short of the facts and reality.”

The Mattituck Airport, Mr. Russell told Times Review, “is largely zoned residential and, except for a small industrially-zoned portion up next to New Suffolk Avenue, most of the airport operates as a pre-existing, nonconforming airbase for private use. Expansion of the runway, an increase in use for public access, use as a heliport, expanded use of some of the property for parking, etc., would all be prohibited.”

The supervisor added that it doesn’t make sense for passengers to land in Mattituck if they’re trying to get to East Hampton. “Why would they land in Mattituck only to have to take two ferries, with limited capacity and service, to get there?” he asked.

Gabreski Airport would likely take on the brunt of diverted air traffic, according to the analysis. If East Hampton Airport fully closed, Gabreski could see an almost 40% increase in operations.

The analysis emphasized that all numbers in the study represent a “worst-case scenario.”

Barry Raebeck, director of the Coalition to Transform East Hampton Airport — a community group advocating to shut down the airfield — said it’s unlikely much air traffic would be diverted to Mattituck if the site were to close.

“I know the area. I’ve lived out here my whole life,” he said. “Mattituck has no facilities, it has no parking space for aircraft, it has virtually no parking space for cars … and the remoteness of the location, especially in the peak season, when traffic is so thick on the South Fork … Who would do that? It’s not going to happen.”

Mr. Raebeck said community efforts to shut down East Hampton Airport have been ongoing for years and criticized the site for creating environmental and noise pollution and damaging quality of life for nearby residents.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to people around here that the public land is being used to basically assault the public with visual, air, groundwater and noise pollution on an ever increasing level,” he said, adding, “It’s gone from a little country airport … into this monstrosity that’s destroying the habitat and the quality of life for thousands of people, from close to the airport all the way to Manhattan. It’s a nightmare, basically.”