LINCOLN PARK — Business at Lincoln Park Airport has been hurting lately, and area pilots said it's all due to President Donald Trump's presence in the area.

The dip in profits and flights coincides with Trump's visits to his Bedminster property.

With the arrival of the president and U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Aviation Administration placed a temporary flight restriction (TFR) for a radius of 30 miles around Trump National.

Lincoln Park is one of 20 North Jersey airports within the TFR. As a result, business at Lincoln Park and other airports in the zone drops "drastically" each time the president arrives in Bedminster, airport officials said. His current 17-day stay, however, seems to be particularly egregious.

Frank Galella of Lincoln Park Aviation said there has been an 80 percent drop in aviation fuel sales in the three weekends the president has been in New Jersey. He wouldn't discuss just how much he's lost in sales.

"The domino effect starts there. If people don’t fly, they don’t burn gas. If they don’t burn gas, they don’t require maintenance," said Galella, who is a West Milford resident.

Then there's the fact that there are no drone flights permitted in the restricted flight area. Galella says his company typically performs around four commercial drone flights a week.

Pilot Mike Pirot of Bloomingdale, who started Garden State Helicopters a year ago, said the flight restrictions are having a profound effect on his bottom line. He needs about 20 hours a month of paid flying time in each of his two helicopters just to pay the cost of his leases. Most of those come from flight instruction.

Take out 17 days, the time the president is expected to remain in Bedminster, and it affects his ability to become profitable. It's even worse that it is happening during the summer, which is prime time for helicopter flights. Tack on the six previous days this summer when Trump was in Bedminster and it hurts, Pirot said.

"Losing August is like a shore town losing the entire month of summer," he said.

Linda Scully of Aero Safety Training, a flight school at the airport, said the TFR has a dampening effect on pilot training. Pilots are allowed to take off with a valid flight plan and receive a special code for their transponders from the air traffic controllers, but they are not allowed to tarry within the restricted area.

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They can travel outside the TFR to conduct lessons. However, to return they have to contact air traffic control to get a new code. This can take time, and time when taking flying lessons is money. Each extra hour is around $170, Scully notes.

"Students worry about getting back in," Scully said.

"Getting back in can be a big issue," agreed Ron Reinartz, who is a flight instructor at the airport. He added that for a student soloing, dealing with a TFR can be a bit intimidating.

Anyone who strays off the flight path is likely to encounter a helicopter or maybe even an F-15, be forced down and be interrogated by the Secret Service. That makes students and amateur pilots inclined to pass on flying while the restrictions are in place, officials said.

Scully said the timing of the president's stay hasn't been great, as this week the airport is holding an aerocamp, where teens learn about flying. A key selling point is the introductory ride, which cannot be easily done given the restrictions.

While the presidential TFR has hampered operations at Lincoln Park, it has crippled operations at other airports. Andover Flight School and Skydive New Jersey have also been severely affected, officials noted.

Damien Del Gaizo, owner of Andover Flight School, said, "This is horrible. It is putting us out of business."

Andover flies vintage planes such as the 1946 Stearman, a bi-plane once used for military training. Because of the lack of transponders in his planes, he is effectively grounded.

"Losing 2½ weeks at the height of summer impacts us severely," Del Gaizo said. "It is a tough enough business to make it in anyway."

While pilots at Lincoln Park and Andover still technically can leave the TFR, two airports, Solberg and Somerset, are effectively closed, as no flights are permitted because they fall within the 10-mile radius, which is a no-fly zone.

"We are totally hamstrung in any effort to advance our business in the future," said Thor Solberg Jr., who owns the Solberg airport with his sisters, Suzanne Nagle and Lorraine Solberg.

Nagle said that because of the no-fly zone, there are no fuel sales, no flight training, no aircraft rental, no radio-controlled model aircraft flying, no hot air ballooning, no Civil Air Patrol, and no aircraft flying for business or pleasure.

"This is not Wyoming or Nevada," Nagle said. "This is not even West Palm Beach, where at least a portion of the 60-nautical-mile diameter is over the Atlantic Ocean."

Worse, potential corporate clients may take their business elsewhere, Nagle said.

New Jersey's congressional delegation is sympathetic to airports' and related businesses' plight. On June 29, the congressmen wrote a letter to Secret Service officials imploring them to modify the TFR protocols.

"Most of these general businesses rely on summer flying and tourism to generate sales and generate revenue to keep them afloat during the off season," the letter reads.

Congressman Leonard Lance, R-Clinton, was one of the signers and says that while he doesn't begrudge the president time off, he does want to see something done for the local airports.

"I hope and expect the Secret Service will review our request," Lance said. He said the TFR also affects airports around Palm Beach when the president spends time there.

In the June 29 letter, Lance and others, including Reps. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, and Josh Gottheimer, D-Wyckoff, said they hoped the Secret Service could strike a balance between protecting the president and minimizing the impact on New Jersey's general aviation businesses.

When asked about potential modifications to the presidential TFR, FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac deferred to the Secret Service. U.S. Secret Service Special Agent/Spokesperson Joseph A. Casey said the agency had "no comment" on the letter.