Each fall, the North Fork braces for an influx of pumpkin-pickers, party buses and winery tour limos. Beginning this month, Florida-based Tropic Ocean Airways had planned to add seaplanes to the mix, flying small groups of city day-trippers from Manhattan’s East River to Long Island’s wine country for wine tastings, oyster farm tours and seafood lunches.

Roundtrip flights to the North Fork would cost between $6,000 and $7,000 per charter — whether for one passenger or eight, TOA Chief Operating Officer Kimo Buckon said in an interview over the weekend.

There’s only one problem: Southold Town code bans seaplanes from landing, taking off from or taxiing across Southold Town waters.

Section K(2) of the Southold Town Code’s supplementary regulations reads: “Seaplanes prohibited. No person, firm or corporation shall land or cause to be landed, take off or cause to take off, taxi, or emplane or deplane any seaplane on or from Town beaches and waterways, trustee waters and beaches, Town waters, Town docks, and/or floats.”

The company would also be restricted from ferrying seaplane passengers to shore from outside Southold Town waters by Suffolk County code, which was amended in 2022 to regulate water taxis and “water limos” — requiring them to be licensed by the county.

Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski said on Tuesday that he received a call last week about TOA seaplanes landing in New Suffolk, “so we reacted quickly.” He contacted the police chief to make sure the marine bureau was aware, and the town attorney to reach out directly to the company.

“Code enforcement sent the company a copy of the two codes [town and county], so they’d be on notice.”

Informed of the language in the town code banning seaplanes on Tuesday afternoon, a TOA spokesperson said the company had no record of any recent communications from Southold Town.

“Seaplane operations are site-specific,” the spokesperson said. “Every request is reviewed for location, conditions, and city/county (and, where applicable, town/trustee) ordinances before we accept. Because these are curated experiences … the final spot is set case-by-case based on guest needs and local rules.”

Despite a press release and a lengthy interview over the weekend in which she described the North Fork service as having been underway as a pilot program since May — including a seaplane press tour — the spokesperson claimed on Tuesday evening that “in this instance, marketing went out to gauge interest in the area” and “apologize[d] for the confusion. Operations would have declined any non-compliant site had we received a confirmed charter.”

In a follow-up interview on Monday, Buckon corroborated all of the spokesperson’s original claims about the North Fork service being already underway and partnered with North Fork businesses.

The North Fork flights had planned to beach directly near local destinations, including Minnow at Galley Ho in New Suffolk — where passengers would be given the opportunity to select seafood from a trap and have it prepared for lunch — or the Pridwin Hotel & Cottages on Shelter Island.

It’s not clear whether TOA will continue to travel to Shelter Island. A spokesperson for the Shelter Island Town Attorney’s office confirmed to the North Fork Sun that the island does not prohibit seaplanes from landing or taking off from its shores.

The service had planned a two-month pilot North Fork program running through September and October—traditionally a slower season in the Bahamas, where the seaplane service built up its business.

Tropic Ocean Airways began in Florida, connecting Fort Lauderdale to more than a dozen Bahamian islands by water landing. Its business model draws inspiration from the Maldives, where seaplanes ferry visitors between resorts spread across hundreds of islands without airports. TOA executives had planned to bring that approach to the North Fork, betting on growing demand for quick, curated escapes from Manhattan that prioritize luxury agritourism.

“We think of it less as travel and more of an experience,” Buckon said. “From the sightseeing flight to the beach landing to the wine in your glass.”

For now, the future of the flights remains uncertain.

This story has been updated to reflect new information gathered since publication on Tuesday morning.