East Hampton Airport is a public use airport located three nautical miles west of East Hampton, a village in the Town of East Hampton, Suffolk County, New York, United States. The airport is owned and operated by the Town of East Hampton and located in the town's hamlet of Wainscott. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility. As of July 2014, there is a continuing debate about airport use by nonresidents arriving by helicopters, larger private jets, and seaplanes to visit the Hamptons, and in particular, the rotary wing traffic; residents around the airport and in general have complained about noise, the money spent on the airport, and on implications of acceptance of federal funds on local control over traffic. Debates include the repair of runways and fencing, with opponents in favor of unrestricted use promoting federal funding and those favoring restricted use and sound abatement arguing for user fees and that maintain local control; tensions have risen sufficiently that local elections have been determined over politician's views on the issues. Helicopter and seaplane traffic has continued to increase further over the period 2015–2018, such that large swathes of the rural North and South Forks of Long Island experience noise levels comparable to those encountered close to major commercial airports.
Facilities and aircraft
East Hampton Airport covers an area of 570 acres at an elevation of 55 feet above mean sea level. It has two active runways with asphalt surfaces: 10/28 is 4,255 by 100 feet and 16/34 is 2,060 by 75 feet. For the 12-month period ending September 21, 2007, the airport had 31,612 aircraft operations, an average of 86 per day: 52% general aviation, 47.8% air taxi, and 0.2% military. At that time there were 89 aircraft based at this airport: 84.3% single-engine, 5.6% multi-engine, 5.6% jet, and 4.5% helicopter.
Airlines and destinations
HeliFlite founded in 1998, offers on-demand charter service, helicopter management, fractional ownership and a 25-hour HeliCard™ product; it operates a fleet of twin engine & dual piloted Bell 430 and Sikorsky S76 executive class helicopters. Trump Air provided regularly scheduled helicopter service in the late 1980s and early 1990s; the last scheduled fixed wing airline was East Hampton Airlines, which now offers chartered service.
Non-residential use controversy
There is an historic and continuing controversy centered on non-residential use that peaks in summer months, and generates issues related to noise and traffic, where noise issue from helicopters is particularly acute. In the summer of 2007 US Helicopter announced plans for scheduled service between the airport and the East 34th Street Heliport in New York City against "the exceptionally rich".
