Metro

Rich booking up seaplanes to the Hamptons in case of LIRR strike

Wealthy New Yorkers won’t let increased car traffic from an LIRR strike ruin their Hamptons weekends — and ­instead plan to just fly over the poor saps stuck on the Long Island Expressway.

Seaplane and helicopter bookings to tony East End shore towns are soaring in anticipation of a Sunday strike, as well-heeled beach bums look to avoid added volume on already clogged roadways.

“The demand is already there,” said ­Melissa Tomkiel, co-founder of Fly The Whale, a Manhattan-based seaplane firm.

“Business is already increasing because people are afraid of the strike,” she added. “They are booking two weeks in advance to be guaranteed a seat.”

To meet the added demand, Tomkiel said, her company is going to be upping the number of flights from four to six on Thursdays and Fridays, and will even start offering midweek flights.

At $550 for a one-way peak ticket, passengers can take a 35-minute flight aboard Whale Force One, which departs from the East River at 23rd Street on the east side of Manhattan and skip over the gridlock a strike would cause.

“People want to optimize their time when they’re out here, not spend six hours on the LIE,” said Cindy Herbst, owner of Sound Aircraft Services, another seaplane company.

Herbst says business is usually booming during the summer, but said the possible strike has had phones ringing off the hook with rich city dwellers looking to get a seat on one of the pricey flights.

Helicopter entrepreneur Evan Licht, general manager of Blade, which arranges ride-share flights to the East End via a smartphone app, says a strike “reinforces why people should go to [the] 34th Street [heliport], get a glass of rosé and fly out with us.”