The President’s Budget Request cuts spending on the Essential Air Service (EAS) Program.
We have been arguing for years that EAS has outlived its original intent. The EAS program was intended to be a temporary, ten-year bridge for small airports to adjust to life after airline deregulation in the 1980s.
The program benefits just a lucky few who fly into and out of the subsidized airports.
However, all taxpayers – even those, the majority, who can derive no benefit from the subsidized service – are paying for this program.
The Budget notes that EAS spending has increased 600 percent since 1996 and 132 percent since 2008, and that previous piecemeal efforts to reform the EAS program have failed. The Budget includes a legislative reform proposal that would limit EAS eligibility to communities located more than 50 driving miles from a small hub, 75 miles from a medium hub, and 100 miles from a large hub.
And while it increases the subsidy cap from $200 to $250 per passenger for communities located within 210 miles from a large or medium hub airport, it also eliminates waivers for this requirement.
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