US Says Funding for Rural Airline Service to End as Soon as Sunday
Federal officials has announced that financial support from a US government program that subsidizes commercial air service to rural airports are set to expire as early as this weekend because of the ongoing government shutdown.
The US transportation department indicated that subsidies under the Essential Air Service initiative are expected to expire as early as this weekend after the agency transferred unrelated funding from the Federal Aviation Administration as an advance.
The department is currently notifying airline operators about the funding shortfall and alerting communities about possible impacts.
Federal authorities provides approximately $350m in yearly financial support for the program.
In recent months, the White House suggested reducing funding by $308 million for the Essential Air Service, which has support among GOP legislators because it provides services to predominantly Republican rural regions.
During the first presidency of the former president, the White House proposed eliminating the Essential Air Service initiative – but lawmakers chose to boost funding instead.
This initiative typically supports two round trips each day using 30- to 50-seat aircraft – or more frequent flights with smaller aircraft. According to the department that under the program, approximately 65 communities in Alaska receive service and 112 locations across the other 49 states and Puerto Rico that otherwise might not receive any commercial air connectivity.
“Every state nationwide will be impacted,” the transportation chief stated during a press conference, noting the service had bipartisan support. “We lack the money for that initiative moving forward.”
