Gleeful East Hampton Billionaires Score Another Win In Battle To Continue Summer Helicopter Jaunts In/Out Of NYC; Despite Unrelenting Eardrum-Busting Noise For Chagrined Year-Round Locals In Famed Resort Area, Judge Extends Incessant Air Traffic Until Pending Lawsuit Is Resolved - Just In Time For Upcoming 4th Of July Weekend!

In East Hampton, Long Island, the New York Post reports (via The Real Deal (NYC)):

• Matt Lauer can relax.
  
  In a convenience coup for affluent Hamptons regulars, a Long Island federal judge ruled Friday that East Hampton officials cannot enforce severe restrictions on air traffic into and out of the favorite playground of rich Manhattanites — at least for now.
  
  Judge Joanna Seybert blocked the town from limiting each aircraft to one trip per week until a lawsuit seeking to block the rule is resolved.
  
  Seybert let the town enact curfews on all flights between 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and to limit arrivals and departures by the noisy aircraft between 8 p.m. to 9 a.m.
  
  For decades, local residents have groused about the unrelenting house-rattling, dog-scaring din caused by incessant air traffic into the famed resort area during the summer season. For roughly $600 a trip, the affluent have long favored taking to the skies and passing over choked [Long Island Expressway] traffic.
  
  Local officials passed the drastic legislation in April.
  
  Helicopters routinely made up to 40 trips per week during the summer, and local officials said the restrictions would reduce that number by 75 percent.
  
  Branding themselves “Friends of the East Hampton Airport,” a ­coalition of helicopter operators sought an injunction in federal court, arguing that the local officials did not have the right to ­restrict air travel.
  
  And the decision came just in time for the upcoming Fourth of July weekend.

Source: Judge OKs rich Hamptonites’ helicopter trips — for now.