Originally Posted by iaflyer

Some of the slots that USairways are trying to trade are "commuter" slots which are designated for commuter (used to be airplanes certified in the Commuter category, but are now, RJs) planes, but there are no restrictions on where they can go (other than existing distance requirements from LGA)

Someone was mentioning Essential Air Service (EAS) - completely separate. EAS routes are subsidized routes to very small towns (places used to be like Watertown, NY, Saranac, NY, etc) but none of the routes link to LGA. Watertown's link to the outside world is via Cape Air's Cessna-402 service to Albany, NY. Not a big market... None connect to LGA. In fact, a number of the EAS routes connect to DTW.