In our data center today, you will find an interesting new release of data and visualizations regarding the federal Essential Air Service (EAS) program. EAS is a relic of airline deregulation in the 1970s, and was supposed to be a ten-year temporary bridge for communities that were afraid they would lose air service. Thirty-five years later, taxpayers are spending more on this program than ever. Our recent analysis of all existing EAS agreements indicates that current value of these contracts (not including Hawaii or Alaska) is just shy of $218 million. This spending supports travel from just 117 rural communities, and costs as much as $1,900 per passenger.

You can see the raw data behind each of these agreements, and download a copy for your own use: http://bit.ly/10fld93

You can see a map visualization of this data here: http://bit.ly/10Cj70f

And finally, for a mash up that shows how close many of these EAS airports are to hub airports, check this out: http://bit.ly/Y0AM1l

In addition, here is an analysis of how this data informs what may change within the program based on last year's FAA reauthorization bill: http://bit.ly/14R4OMy

A screen shot of the data set:

A screen shot of the map visualization: