In an all-too-predictable development, members of Congress have launched their annual attack on the Essential Air Service (EAS) program, again forcing the Regional Airline Association (RAA) to devote disproportionate energy toward defending a relatively paltry $200 million out of the more than $129 billion in transportation spending the Obama Administration has proposed for FY2012. This time, however, unusually heated rhetoric over budget deficits has raised the stakes for the RAA and the more than 150 communities whose businesses depend on the air service supported by the EAS program’s modest largesse. As the RAA and several like-minded alphabet groups have noted, a negative outcome could mean the end of their lifeline to the nation’s air transportation network and a descent into further economic malaise.
Happily for the RAA, the Senate tabled an amendment to its FAA Reauthorization bill proposed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would have completely cut the $200 million that funds the program by a vote of 61 to 38. Although the Senate preserved the $200 million funding level, another amendment that did pass limits EAS to locations 90 or more miles away from the nearest medium- or large-hub airport and with 10 or more daily enplanements.
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