DAN'S PAPERS, May 2, 2008 Page 29 www.danshamptons.com
COMING IN FOR A LANDING FEE AT EH AIRPORT By David Lion Rattiner It’s called the “Airport Master Plan” and it’s getting a lot of attention from the East Hampton Town Board. Last Wednesday the Board held a meeting to discuss the future of the East Hampton Airport. With private helicopters, private jets and little Cessnas flying in and out of the airport all summer long, the cost of running the facility has been going up and future plans for the airport need to be considered. In addition, the rise of the private jet service industry, such as Blue Star Jets and Marquis Jets, which allow rental of a private airplane and crew, has also added tremendously to the airport’s use. With all of the extra traffic, the little East Hampton Airport experiences traffic above and beyond other airports of similar size and staff. In 2007 alone, 31,000 planes made their way into East Hampton through the airport. The extra airport traffic has caught the attention of neighbors who complain about the noise from helicopters in the summertime, as well as the Town, which is recognizing the need for a state-of-the-art airport. The additional use for such a small airport has put a strain on its infrastructure — most of it resulting from the extra use of runway 10-28, which has cracks in need of repair. New lighting and a new road are also on the “to do” list. The estimated cost of these projects is upwards of half a million dollars, not exactly small potatoes when it comes to a local airport. At the meeting, the consulting firm Simat, Helliesen and Eichner, whose business is studying and recommending financial models for airports, gave a presentation to the Town Board. They delivered a mind-numbing array of financial models to show ways the airport
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could generate revenue for the Town. A very interesting issue regarding the airport is whether or not the Town should accept money from the FAA. Why wouldn’t they? Because if the Town accepts FAA grants, with it comes guidelines that the airport must adhere to, including specific management practices and reserving airport revenues solely for the airport. Because the initial FAA monies would be a one-time grant, running the airport without the FAA’s assistance would be preferred — if it makes financial sense. East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill McGintee stopped the presentation when talk of selling off land to generate up front monies for the airport was presented. “Let’s go back for a second and have a look at what would happen if we leased the land,” he said. With a few keystrokes, consultant Alex Zaslov quickly entered into the computer a leasing formula and the numbers all came
back black, indicating that leasing land vs. selling the land was worth considering. As of today, the best strategy to consider for generating additional revenue for the airport is to charge landing fees, which can be increased and placed onto transient flights, but not onto fliers who lease hangers at the airport. The financial model presented to the Town was based on Gabreski and Brookhaven airports as well as Islip. It showed projected traffic activity, commercial revenue and forecast models with a variety of factors, the most significant being increased landing fees. An obvious answer to the airports future is to pass along the cost to those who come in on transient flights in private jets through increasing landing fees. “You can’t do that just for one type of aircraft,” said Zaslov. “You have to pass along a fee increase to all of the different types of aircraft.” Something that came up briefly at the meeting was the possibility of selling advertising at the airport to major brands such as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. It was quickly passed over by the board members, who indicated that a significant amount of money would not come from such a project and that so far, that plan was not going to impact the airport. No decisions on what to do have been made yet about the airport, but they are getting closer to an answer. Will this stop you from flying your jet in this summer? Probably not. But runway 10-28 might be a little bumpy.
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diately. “The main concern is these diseases that can affect people,” he said. “What people seem to be most nervous about is, what if there’s a release? But that’s pretty much impossible. The quantities on site would be for lab testing. There’s not enough to cause anyone to get ill. These diseases do not transmit from person to person or by breathing them in.” “Plum Island has been here for the last 50 years and has worked quite well as a laboratory,” said the facility’s director, Larry Barrett, who will not comment on whether the island is a good site for a BSL-4 lab until the DEIS is released. “It operates quite well and it operates quite safely, but we don’t have the room here that we need. Our primary disease is FMD, but we need to expand that to other high threat diseases so we can do more research.” A BSL-4 lab would require even more stringent security, including additional filtration on ventilation systems and additional treatment of waste materials. The DEIS should be available to the public no later than June and will be followed by another public meeting. The DHS hopes to make its decision sometime this year.
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