Airlines Receive Nearly $600 Million to Serve Rural Communities. That Funding Runs Out Sunday

Funding for a program that provides subsidies for airlines to operate in communities with little to no commercial air service is expected to lapse by Sunday as the government shutdown continues.

The program, known as Essential Air Service, was created after the 1978 deregulation of the airline industry to ensure carriers could operate otherwise unprofitable routes in rural communities and smaller cities.

EAS routes typically connect these communities to larger airports, and there is a separate program for Alaska.

“There's many small communities across the country that will now no longer have the resources to make sure they have air service,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a press conference at Newark Airport on M