Waste of the Day: Ending The Essential Air Service Would Save $200 Million Annually

The Essential Air Service, a way to provide air service in smaller communities, costs the U.S. $200 million every year for the barely-used, highly-subsidized program, according to Citizens Against Government Waste’s annual report “Prime Cuts,” a list of recommendations to reduce the record national debt.

The service was created in 1978 as a temporary measure to provide flights to smaller communities after airline deregulation. The concern was that small cities would lose air service, as airlines would choose larger, more lucrative routes.

Intended to sunset after a decade, the program has been operating for 45 years, with the U.S. Department of Transportation providing subsidies to 175 rural communities in 32 states and Puerto Rico.

Most cities are subsidized at more than $100 per passenger, supporting largely empty flights that otherwise would never leave the ground.

The cities selected for the service haven’t changed since its inception, making small towns with approximately 10,000 people get subsidies.

“Tiny Ogdensburg, NY with 10,000 people and Massena, NY with 12,000 people get subsidies,” an airline industry executive wrote in Forbes. “Yet nearby Watertown, NY, with over 25,000 people, gets no subsidies today. People in Watertown must drive the just over one-hour trip to Syracuse, NY for their flights while the much smaller subsidized cities can board at their local airport on the taxpayer’s dime. Populations have changed in the last 40 years, but the EAS city designations haven’t kept pace.”

The program can spend thousands per passenger in rural areas and provide service to less than 30 passengers daily.

An airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania gets an EAS subsidy, “tirelessly defended by the late Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), from which just 18 flights leave each week. Johnstown is only two hours east of Pittsburgh International Airport by car,” Citizens Against Government Waste reported.

A 2015 study from West Virginia University found “strong evidence that subsidies are higher in districts having congressional representation on the House Transportation Committee.”

Other investigations have found “one flight between Baltimore and Hagerstown, Maryland – just about 75 miles apart – was so sparse the captain allowed the only other passenger who wasn’t our producer to sit in the co-pilot’s seat,” and cited two other flights on the same route with just one passenger each.

The investigative team found that, “A 19-seat plane from Cleveland to Dubois, Pennsylvania, about 180 miles east, had just one passenger as well.”

While the Federal Aviation Administration funding bill that passed in February 2012 limited EAS funding to airports that are more than 175 miles from a major hub and that move more than 10 passengers a day, it makes much more sense to eliminate the program entirely.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.