While airline routes are typically launched or cut based on their potential for generating traffic, the government also subsidizes a network of flights that will never be profitable from a business standpoint.
The Essential Air Service (EAS) and Small Community Air Service Development (SCASDP) programs give carriers contracts to run flights to rural areas and small regional airports, respectively, and in doing so, provide isolated communities with vital transportation on which many depend.
Examples of EAS flights include a Contour Airlines route between Muscle Shoals in northwestern Alabama and Charlotte, as well as Southern Airways Express flights from El Centro in California’s Imperial Valley to Los Angeles and Phoenix.
At the start of September, Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines pulled out of a SCASDP contract to fly between Safford Regional Airport in Arizona’s Graham County and Phoenix after funding to operate it ran out nine months after it was launched.
Programs providing air service to rural communities set to stop during government shutdown
With the United States government now a week into a shutdown that arose after lawmakers failed to pass a necessary budget bill, many nonessential federal services have already been put on hold.
On Oct. 6, the Trump administration confirmed that EAS and SCASDP are among the programs set to expire by Sunday, Oct. 12, as funding for them will run out.
“Every state across the country will be impacted,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a press meeting first reported by Reuters. “We don’t have the money for that program moving forward.”
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The budget for 2025 had approximately $350 million in funding allocated for EAS. president Donald Trump had back in May talked down the program as one that “funnels taxpayer dollars to airlines to subsidize half-empty flights from airports that are within easy commuting distance from each other.”
The current administration has also made it a focal point to cut government programs and services that it classifies as “waste.”
In July, Republican-led Congress passed a budget bill that cuts $1.2 trillion in federal spending from government programs such as Medicaid and SNAP.
Image source: Visions of America/Sohm/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
These are the states and counties set to lose their EAS flights
EAS was launched in 1978, and as of 2025, subsidized flights to more than 30 regional airports in states like Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Arizona. If funding is not renewed, all of these will lose flights linking rural communities to the nearest larger city.
While the exact schedule of flights differs from month to month, the funds allocated to the EAS allow for the operation of two round trips on planes with between 30 to 50 passengers per day, or more frequently on smaller aircraft.
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Due to the state’s large size and remote nature, Alaska remains the largest beneficiary of the program, with 65 communities across the state receiving EAS flights. The remaining 112 are spread across the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Other communities that either currently receive EAS services or are eligible to receive them at different points in the year include West Yellowstone and Wolf Point in Montana, Carlsbad and Clovis in New Mexico, and Plattsburgh and Ogdensburg in upstate New York.
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