Funny they do that in PRC. I walked through the detector one morning in JLN when our agents were outside and I was trying to get to the plane. Also, it would not surprise me if they made triple what our pilots make.

 

The EAS program will cost $123,000,000 for 2009.

School lunch program abuse costs us $120,000,000 annually
Food Stamp overpayments costs us $600,000,000 annually
The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2,000,000,000 annually to not farm their lands.

The EAS program is far from being wasteful spending as much as others

 

It is a huge waste when you have multiple cities in Kansas, for example, that are within 45-60 minutes of each other. Each of these cities will generally board only 4-5 passengers, so why can't we just fly to one, load up all 15 and call it a day.

 

If I remember correctly, the money for EAS routes comes from taxes&fees on foreign carriers entering the US.

 

I flew EAS routes throughout the east coast, midwest and Southwest for 4 years for Air Midwest in Beechcraft 1900's.

Many times I thought that it was crazy that government money was spent to supplement service to some of these communities. This came to an end when I actually talked to a number of my passengers on Albuquerque to Silver City, NM flight.

One was an Oncologist based in Albuquerque who flew down on the first flight to Silver City in the morning, was driven to the hospital and had appointments every 30 minutes all day long until the absolute last minute upon which he would jump back onto the last flight that evening back to Albuquerque. Without the EAS flights, these patients (many of whom could not travel to ABQ for visits, etc.) would not have any specialists to consult regarding a life threatening illness.

The second was a orthopedic surgeon who filled the back of the airplane with boxes of artificial hip balls, etc. He would do 2-3 operations during his stay in Silver City and take the last flight back to ABQ.

The more I talked to these people on my flights, the more I found that a lot of these communities quality of life would be drastically altered if EAS was not in place.

It looks like the EAS program is another government boondoggle, but in a lot of cases it is a lifeline to the rest of the world. On the West Coast distances made some communities completely inaccessible. On the east coast (Appalachians, etc.) these communities were so far off the beaten path and in the mountains that automobile travel really wasnt an effective option for medical and essential personnel visiting from larger cities.

At the other extreme....I flew from Kansas City to Topeka, KS (A very short flight) for over a year each day without ever carrying a single passenger...NOT ONE! We were flying just to record the completion and get paid by the government. Flying an empty 1900 each way day after day just reminded me that this was a tremendous waste. (Not a complete waste....the FBO at Topeka had a great free popcorn machine......CREW MEAL!!!!) Topeka had service just for political reasons.. no other reason. It was a short and easy drive to MCI. Truly a waste. It is a good program, but gets abused by some communities who really don't need the service. The program just needs a lot of tweaking.

Today I fly the LUVJet into big airports, but my best times in this business were wrestling the Beech 1900 into a hundred little towns that nobody has ever heard of. Memories!

 

The program certainly needs some tweaking. It is true that the EAS flights bring revenue into these cities, therefore the city should pay for it... not the federal government. It is like a business transaction- if the profits are more than the costs, then it is worth it. If it is not, then don't pay.

I worked at Great Lakes. When a lot of the passengers were paranoid or watching every move the flight crew did, I would play a joke on them. I would look back and down the isle in cruise, and if a few were looking at us I would continue.... I would start by pulling out a sectional or Low altitude chard and pretend to have an argument with the FO about where our location is. After a couple of minutes of discussion, we would look at each other and laugh. Then we would turn the map right-side up. It was friggin funny as he11.

 

Moving people around moves money around. Moving money around is good for the economy. Pilots *****ing about EAS is just retarded! The passengers need it and the people that are employed as a result of EAS need it.

There are bigger fish to fry with regards to government waste if that's your concern!