Each year the Bush Administration tries to slash funding for the Essential Air Service (EAS) program, and each year it fails, thanks in no small part to advocates for small community air service such as the Regional Airline Association. But no amount of lobbying can change the basic rules of supply and demand, and when the airlines willing to fly EAS routes fail to find enough airplanes and pilots to meet their obligations, they only lend aid and comfort to the free-market purists bent on dismantling the program.
No fewer than five EAS communities last served in March by the defunct RegionsAir remain without any scheduled airline service due to equipment and staff shortages at Great Lakes Aviation and Big Sky Airlines. Three others have seen all connecting code-share service shut down. At the time, commerce officials from Marion, Quincy and Decatur, Ill.; Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; and Burlington, Iowa, expected Great Lakes to resume American Connection service from St. Louis within two or three months. Jackson, Tenn.; Cape Girardeau, Mo.; and Owensboro, Ky., planned for a similar wait for service to Cincinnati from Delta Connection carrier Big Sky Airlines.
