The Associated Press reported Friday that in 2010, the government subsidized $4,107 for each one-way ticket on Great Lakes Airlines flights from Ely, Nev. The actual passengers paid between $70 and $90.
The $200 million Essential Air Program provides subsides to 153 airports, but House Republicans argued during debate over the latest FAA extension bill — passed only after the agency was shut down earlier this month — that 13 should be eliminated because most were within close driving distance of another airport with unsubsidized commercial jet service. The extension passed, though Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has the authority to reinstate the funding, the AP said.
Senate Democrats from states targeted to lose funding, like Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), protested the cuts, arguing that Republicans sought to eliminate all federal help for rural air traffic.
“I have been willing to consider options to reform and strengthen the program for much of the past decade,” Rockefeller said on the Senate floor. “I want a good EAS program for the country and rural America. I want communities that are bought in to making their air service a success.”
Steve Smith, executive director of the Jackson, Tenn., airport authority, also has seen empty or near empty flights take off, since the airlines get paid per flight, not per passenger. The subsidy amounted to $244 for each of the 2,514 people who flew out of Smith's airport last year, though few if any passengers knew that.
"They fly the empty plane so they can still get the money," Smith said.
The fight over the subsidies was a key sticking point that led to the recent political standoff in Washington that temporarily shut down the Federal Aviation Administration, putting thousands out of work for nearly two weeks. There were other disputes as well, such as a GOP proposal that would make it more difficult for airline workers to unionize.
Republicans got the EAS cuts they were looking for in last week's agreement — but with a major caveat. Subsidies to Ely, Jackson and 11 other communities are set to end, but Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has the authority to continue them if he decides it's necessary.
Rep. David McKinley, a Republican who came into office with tea party support, sided on the issue with Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a fellow West Virginian who has used his position as chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to support the current funding.
Flights out of Morgantown, W.Va., were among those targeted by other Republicans. A $1 million subsidy amounted to about $52 for each of Morgantown's more than 10,000 passengers last year.
McKinley describes himself "as a small government, free-market focused owner of a small business," but said airports that receive subsidies "serve as crucial engines of job creation for many small towns and rural areas.
Flower shop owner Jim Coombs has been to the Morgantown airport seven times so far this summer to shuttle high school foreign exchange students to their host families. He'll be there seven more times to send them home.
The nearest international airport is about an hour and a half's drive north in Pittsburgh, but traveling there means time wasted in traffic and in Interstate 79 construction zones, not to mention the cost of gas and pricey parking versus free. Coombs says the fact that the northern West Virginia city has its own airport is a selling point for people considering jobs there.
"I think the people in Washington are the types that just think if it's not in a big area, it's not worth anything. They don't know what it's like here. They don't know what goes on here," Coombs said.
In Alamogordo, officials said number-crunching doesn't explain the full value of access to air transportation.
Saddled between southern New Mexico's Sacramento Mountains and the desolate Tularosa Valley, residents don't have any options for air travel other than twice daily, federally subsidized round-trip flights, said airport manager Parker Bradley.
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