Essential Air Service Program Research Articles

The U.S. Essential Air Service Program and SARS C0V-2, 2019–2020

The Essential Air Service (EAS) Program in the United States has provided government-subsidized air service to many small and rural communities for several decades. A program expectation is that it should provide service in light of prevailing market conditions. This paper assesses EAS during the height of the SARS CoV-2 (CoV2) pandemic from three interrelated perspectives: the program in aggregate, individual communities, and EAS connecting hubs. Using a combination of methods, including complex network analysis, we find that, in aggregate, EAS airports performed better than non-EAS airports in preserving seat capacity. However, there was variation in performance between individual EAS communities in particular and some distinct regional geographic patterns in general. In addition, we found substantial variation in the hubs' performance, which connect EAS to the U.S. National Air System.

Exploring accessibility from spatial interaction data: An evaluation of the Essential Air Service (EAS) program in the contiguous US air transport system

This paper is primarily concerned with the accessibility of airports located in small and geographically isolated communities. Specifically, it carries out a sensitivity analysis to derive rates of change for the parameters of a spatial interaction model applied to empirical air passenger trip data, and interprets the results focusing on the local airports subsidized by the Essential Air Service program. An empirical trip based accessibility measure is developed for individual airports in the contiguous US air transportation system. The measure enables us to capture the distinctive roles of small airports, which primarily function as regional associates of nearby cities and entrances for long-haul trips via major hub(s) to continental-scale connections. We observe the geographic and temporal variability of accessibility among airports, regarding the external factors including the dynamics of air carriers’ routing schemes, as well as global and local circumstances. Their impacts on passenger journey lengths are substantial at the local airports due to the few available connections. This issue has received less attention in existing subsidy program assessments. Furthermore, we explore the geographic distribution of non-subsidized local airports showing similar accessibility conditions. This paper enhances prior development by showing that the rates of change in accessibility scores are largely stable over recent national air passenger data.

Essential Air Service in the United States

The Essential Air Service (EAS) program continues to receive federal funding to provide air travel access to rural communities in the United States. Regular assessment and evaluation of the performance of this program are important, given limited federal resources and fiduciary duties. In fact, this program has garnered significant attention through the years because it was originally conceived to offer temporary financial bridging for maintaining commercial air service in rural and remote communities following deregulation in 1978, yet has continued to be funded at increasing rates for over thirty-five years. This article undertakes a systematic analysis of the EAS program in terms of access and intended goals and objectives. A spatial optimization model is used to examine service performance of the existing system. Program insights as well as ways system efficiency that could be enhanced are highlighted for rural air transportation service in the United States.

The political economy of the Essential Air Service program

We find that congressional influences affect the amount of airport subsidies that a congressional district receives through the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. The EAS program was passed with the goal of helping to continue commercial air service to rural communities following deregulation in the 1970s. Using data from 1998–2014, we find strong and consistent evidence that subsidies are higher in districts having congressional representation on the House Transportation and Ways and Means Committees. Our empirical results, when combined with news reports of members claiming credit for securing EAS funding, are consistent with the EAS serving private and public interests.

A Typology of Rural Airports in the United States: Evaluating Network Accessibility

Since deregulation of the airline industry in 1978, carriers have largely focused their commercial service efforts on medium and large hub airports located in metropolitan areas with sufficient demand for air travel services. These profitable locations often cross-subsidize service to smaller hubs, which can function as feeder nodes/links to the larger hub-to-hub carrier network. However, as fuel and labor costs continue to increase for commercial carriers, reductions and terminations of air service in smaller rural markets are common, reducing carrier footprints and leaving many regions of the United States without viable air transport options. To be clear, this is not a new development. Many rural and remote airports are all too familiar with service reductions, which is why safeguards such as the Essential Air Service program continue to operate. The purpose of this paper is to explore the network and geographic context of airports in the U.S., evaluating relative accessibility and using this information to develop a typology of rural airports for the U.S. Implications for policy and transportation planning are discussed.

Public funding of airport incentives in the United States: The efficacy of the Small Community Air Service Development Grant program

As U.S. airlines began to restrict available domestic capacity at smaller airports in 2008 as a result of higher fuel prices and an economic downturn, these airports have increasingly started to rely on incentive packages composed of revenue guarantees, waived or reduced airport use fees, marketing support, or direct subsidies to attract new service. There are two main federal programs that provide funding for such incentives for small U.S. airports: the Essential Air Service (EAS) program and the Small Community Air Service Development Grant (SCASDG) program. While the EAS program has received considerable academic attention, there has been no comprehensive analysis of the success of SCASDG recipients in attracting and retaining their targeted air service.Using a metric of SCASD grant success, this paper evaluates the outcomes of 115 SCASD grantees from 2006 to 2011. In each year, fewer than half of the grant recipients were ultimately successful in meeting the goals of their proposal. Several case studies suggest that successful grantees often had significant community or airline support prior to submitting their grant and were located in slightly larger-than-average communities. Further careful consideration is necessary to determine whether reform of the SCASDG program is warranted to more effectively support the development of small community air service in the United States.

Essential Air Service in the United States

The Essential Air Service (EAS) program continues to receive federal funding to provide air travel access to rural communities in the United States. Regular assessment and evaluation of the performance of this program are important, given limited federal resources and fiduciary duties. In fact, this program has garnered significant attention through the years because it was originally conceived to offer temporary financial bridging for maintaining commercial air service in rural and remote communities following deregulation in 1978, yet has continued to be funded at increasing rates for over thirty-five years. This article undertakes a systematic analysis of the EAS program in terms of access and intended goals and objectives. A spatial optimization model is used to examine service performance of the existing system. Program insights as well as ways system efficiency that could be enhanced are highlighted for rural air transportation service in the United States.

A strategic approach for improving rural air transport in the United States

Commercial air transport in rural and remote areas of the United States has a long history. After the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, carriers were free to serve any cities and routes they wished. In anticipation of carriers gravitating toward large urban markets, the Essential Air Service (EAS) program was created to maintain commercial service in smaller and more geographically isolated locales throughout the United States. EAS has been continuously funded since 1978, but has recently attracted the attention of many fiscal hawks. Serving only six passengers per flight, on average, with costs approaching $200 million, there are long held concerns that EAS is a poor use of federal monies. The purpose of this paper is to highlight costs of the EAS program and identify systemic inefficiencies in the allocation of EAS resources. We show that service redundancies exist, with EAS markets being cannibalized by both peer EAS airports and other commercial alternatives. Further, we highlight strategic consolidation possibilities for EAS allocations and services, facilitating federal appropriations reduction without sacrificing existing geographic service needs.

Economic contribution of essential air service flights on small and remote communities

The Essential Air Service Program (EAS) has attracted considerable criticism and has been a target for either modification or complete termination almost since its inception through the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978. Although its opponents emphasize the program's inefficiency, its supporters claim that the program is crucial to accessing small and remote communities, which helps them develop economically and socially. This paper demonstrates the economic contributions of EAS flights to small and remote communities. Using a two-stage least squares estimation, the major findings indicate that a 1% increase in air passenger traffic in EAS airports with a minimum annual air passenger traffic of 1000 likely leads to a 0.12% increase in per capita income of the community served by that airport. Our results also suggest that EAS communities that are able to sustain their subsidized flights experienced higher per capita income growth in the 1999–2011 period than did ex-EAS communities that lost their flights as a result of non-eligibility.

Evaluating the efficiency of the Essential Air Service program in the United States

Essential Air Service (EAS) is a federally funded program in the United States that provides connecting, commercial air service between rural communities and their nearest large or medium commercial hub airport. During fiscal year 2010, $170million dollars were spent to provide this service to 107 communities in the US. However, with significant variations in subsidies to each airport (ranging from $427,757 to $3,082,403) and marked differences in passengers served, there are serious concerns regarding the overall efficiency of the EAS program. The purpose of this paper is to use data envelopment analysis integrated in a geographic information system for evaluating service efficiencies at the community level. Policy implications and strategies to improve the EAS program are discussed.

Assessing geographic coverage of the essential air service program

Essential air service (EAS) is a federally funded program that helps provide commercial air transport service from smaller, geographically remote communities in the United States. While critics of this program frequently cite the underutilization of EAS connections as being an indicator of wasteful public spending, recent studies suggest that the spatial configuration of EAS subsidized airports may also contribute to systemic inefficiencies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the prospects for reducing EAS allocations while meeting existing geographic service needs. The analysis of this public sector service is structured using classic location coverage problems to examine whether there are any system inefficiencies. This enables an objective assessment to be carried out, using spatial optimization modeling approaches. The subsequent analysis provides the basis for a number of public policy insights, including the evaluation of service redundancies, the impact of geographic proximity guidelines and the potential for expanding coverage of the EAS program.

AIR TRANSPORTATION POLICY FOR SMALL COMMUNITIES: LESSONS FROM THE U.S. EXPERIENCE

The last decades have witnessed a global trend toward airline deregulation, which has significant impacts on national policies regarding air accessibility to smaller communities. One important result of this liberalisation is that carriers are no longer constrained to serve routes, and may thus neglect service to less profitable destinations with lower traffic. Economic deregulation can therefore have detrimental effects on smaller communities. The United States has dealt with this issue through its Essential Air Service program. Its experience suggests lessons for other countries. U.S. policies have been reasonably successful in sustaining basic air service to smaller communities over the past thirty years of deregulation. Moreover, they have done so relatively effectively and efficiently. A large-scale analysis of the U.S. experience, and three case studies of the communities of Columbia and Jefferson City (Missouri), Rutland (Vermont), and Merced (California) demonstrate this phenomenon. The results show overall gains in efficiency, mostly attributable to the US policy of encouraging competition between air carriers seeking to provide service to small communities. The major flaw in the U.S. arrangements seems to be that the policies have not kept up with changing conditions since deregulation in 1978.

An analysis of essential air service structure and performance

The US federal Essential Air Service program was established to subsidize air service to communities unable to retain commercial carriers after airline deregulation in 1978. In this paper, the subsidized service between program communities and commercial hub airports is investigated relative to several Essential Air Service planning objectives. Specifically, observed community hubbing activity is compared with that modeled to minimize hub access cost and maximize community accessibility within the commercial air transport system. Results highlight trends in system performance relative to these planning objectives and indicate that significant potential exists for enhancing the efficiency of the program in light of limited resources.

Opportunities and Obstacles in Obtaining Air Connectivity for Residents of Federally Designated Essential Air Service Communities

The Essential Air Service (EAS) program was established in 1978 to guarantee air connectivity for residents of small communities to the national air transportation system. Currently, more than half of EAS communities are within 70 highway miles of another airport, leading to passenger leakage at EAS airports and rising program costs. Five case studies of EAS communities examine the reasons for local support of air service that is rarely used. The case studies present three main findings: (a) the EAS program is a gateway to the federal airport infrastructure funds of the Airport Improvement Program; (b) there is an information gap between the U.S. Department of Transportation and the EAS communities regarding the existing risky alternate programs; and (c) local politics and airport administrators' concern about their professional future sustains support for local air service. EAS communities in a multi-airport region, therefore, are most susceptible to passenger leakage and continue to struggle in the program. The obstacles also deter the establishment of transportation options that best fit communities and their residents. The study provides insights into policy changes that address the importance of small airports and rural air connectivity.

A spatial analysis of air transport access and the essential air service program in the United States

In the United States, the goal of essential air service (EAS) is to provide a minimum level of air transport service from smaller, often remote communities to the national network. While supporters of EAS tout the economic benefits of connecting rural and isolated communities, critics cite high costs, low use and antiquated eligibility requirements as factors which compromise the value of the program. In this paper, a comprehensive database of US airports is combined with network analysis techniques and a geographic information system to evaluate population access (at the census tract level) to EAS airports for 2006. Results suggest that redundant coverage of EAS market areas by alternative Federal Aviation Administration designated hub airports can contribute to EAS airport market leakage and that alternative definitions of EAS community eligibility have the potential to dramatically increase programmatic efficiency and reduce federal monies spent on EAS subsidies.

Do Public Service Obligations hamper the cost competitiveness of regional airlines?

Panel data is used to model the cost of a set European and US regional air carriers between 1991 and 2002 to see the extent to which they are affected by Public Service Obligations or the US's Essential Air Service Program. Pooling the data set indicates that the Public Service Obligations in Europe do affect the economic performance of carriers, but this is not the case for the US's Essential Air Service Program.