NBAA and other affected parties filed a Part 16 complaint with the FAA yesterday, asking the agency to issue a cease-and-desist order to halt restrictions imposed by East Hampton, N.Y., on its airport at the eastern tip of Long Island. The complaint asks the FAA to halt the restrictions and to take corrective actions such as withholding federal transportation funds from East Hampton, according to NBAA. The town council last month imposed a mandatory night curfew, a curfew on “noisy” aircraft and a limit of one trip per week for “noisy” aircraft during the summer.
In the Part 16 complaint, NBAA COO Steve Brown wrote, “The restrictions that the town has adopted, by its own calculations, would prohibit a significant share of all airport operations—up to 23 percent of operations at HTO, according to a study performed for the town—and are likely to permanently cripple the airport by driving existing tenants out of business and undercutting the airport budget.”
On Monday, the town agreed to delay enforcement of the restrictions for at least three more weeks, in response to a temporary restraining order (TRO) request filed by Friends of the East Hampton Airport and other parties.