Making Blade run

IT might be more difficult to get out to the Hamptons this summer if the town of East Hampton succeeds in shutting down Blade — the Uber for helicopters.

The town “revoked” Blade’s right to operate at the East Hampton Airport late last month and reported the company to the US Department of Transportation’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings. The town claims Blade was operating scheduled flights like a real airline rather than a charter service. East Hampton councilman Jeffrey Bragman said in a statement, “Ride- sharing of helicopters, which masquerades as scheduled service, is damaging to our community and small airport.” But customers who take Blade’s $795 chopper rides from Manhattan think they are being discriminated against. “The tycoons who own helicopters and ferry their guests back and forth to the city are the worst offenders,” said one local. “And they tend to use the high-status, louder, Sikorskys — the civilian model of the Black Hawk — rather than the smaller, quieter models used by Blade.” The long list of helicop-op ter owners is said to in-in- clude Ira Rennert, Stephen Schwarzman, Michael Bloomberg (inset), Ronald Perelman and Paul Tudor Jones.

“This is like saying that big limos with one person are OK, but a Toyota with multiple passengers is banned,” said another Hamptonite. “The argument isn’t really about noise. It’s about keeping the airport a private enclave for the superwealthy.”

Meanwhile, the town has no jurisdiction over the runways.

“They can’t stop Blade from landing. Only the FAA can,” said another source. “All they can say is you can’t use a desk.”