Jecain7

part 1 is what we've heard as well. Yea, always have a back up plan

acecrackshot

A quick history lesson...before Deregulation, route authorities for profitable city pairs were only granted if airlines accepted the responsibility for flying less profitable or non-profitable routes. With the end of that requirement, EAS was formed to bridge these communities for 5 to 10 years to come up with a commercially viable solution. Since the 1980s, EAS represents basically the aviation version of ethanol, as one of many policies that benefits certain elements of rural economies. EAS has grown from a temporary bridging strategy to grease Deregulation through Congress (another story of Congressional malfeasance to visited another time) to a 300 Million dollar perpetual subsidy for operations that would have died long ago. So, the very poster child for the last 40 years of government spending.

Congressmen like it because rural communities like it, and those are votes, but for government departments facing billpayers from a functionally broke treasury, EAS is an easy sell for any budgeteer. If Congressman Schumkatelli or Senator Tightwad can get an equivalent chunk of government cheese for their districts/states in some other fashion, the political will to support EAS will evaporate.

Walkeraviator

As usual, there is a middle ground that the over zealous of both sides of the aisle want to ignore. Instead of cutting the entire program that actually does good at some communities, maybe we should get our heads out of our asses and work on a compromise. Do communities need EAS service if they are an hour drive from a city with regular service already?(SHD is 59 miles from CHO) Absolutely not. But there are still some remote cities that need that infrastructure for the betterment of the community as a whole. We have already discussed remote Alaskan villages, but there are a few places that are a pretty significant drive from regular service and have large populations that can benifut from the program. Del Rio, TX comes to mind.

So instead of canning the whole thing, let's set a limit. If there is an airport with regular device within a certain radius of your city (say 120miles)... you get no funding. And don't allow the congressmen to determine that radius.

Das Auto

Because that's called bipartisan compromise which no longer exists in this country.

I believe Del Rio (appropriately abbreviated DRT) is served by United express from Houston Intercontinental. Lots of border patrol agents and air force guys rely on that service but I don't think it's an EAS route.