When I flew EAS, we had a city that was an hour drive from three other cities that had non subsidized jet service to several large hub airports. I couldn't wrap my head around this route as we served it with 12 flights a day to two different hub cities. I'd say for loads, we were moving maybe 40 people a day out and into this city.

Anyway the gotcha on this route is that the city had the headquarters for a fortune 50 company that was being rumored to move their corporate offices to one of those hub cities. The only reason the EAS route existed was because this company liked the idea of a government subsidized corporate shuttle. If the route ends, well this company has one more reason to move. The city wants to keep the route to keep this company. No private company should get travel on the public dime but this is an incentive that keeps small markets from losing their bread and butter employers. If EAS goes away, I can see a lot of these communities losing the businesses that inject a lot of money into the local economy.