The title speaks for itself. As I take a breather from the building investor decks, it’s time to look closer at the Essential Air Service in the United States. Which airlines fly it, what aircraft do they use, and where are the routes flown?

The answer to the first is easy: 28 different airlines were awarded government-subsidized routes within the United States as of last fall.

While the wilderness of Alaska is home to nearly half of the Essential Air Service routes, it is impressive to see the reach across the entire country. The obvious state not participating in EAS flying is Florida, likely for two reasons. 1: It’s the most grossly overserved state, anyway, and 2: It’s kind of hard to argue for essential service when even Lakeland, FL, is receiving 737-800s.

Notable in the geographic view is the showing of both Breeze and JetBlue with individual EAS routes of their own. JetBlue offers subsidized E190 service to Presque Isle from Boston on one daily E190 or A220. Breeze operates a single daily A220 between Ogdensburg, New York and Washington Dulles.

While these two routes represent the lone EAS service for each airline, they are also the routes paying the highest subsidies. JetBlue’s EAS contract is valued at $10.4 million annually, while Breeze’s contract is valued at $8.0 million.

But JetBlue and Breeze are far from earning the most subsidies from the EAS program. That distinction goes to SkyWest Airlines - and it’s not even close.

SkyWest holds annual EAS contracts worth almost $200 million. But before you complain about the subsidy value, consider that SkyWest works hard for those awards. A total of thirty-six communities are provided with connections to the domestic airline network by SkyWest. All told, those communities retain air service for $76 per seat.

Second to SkyWest is Contour Airlines, operating E-135 and E-145 regional jets within the Continental U.S. The top five is rounded out by Key Lime Air (who disappointingly doesn’t operate anywhere near locations known for delicious key lime pie), Southern Airways, and Cape Air.

The most often used aircraft in the Essential Air Service today is the small regional jet, considered “small” with 30 to 50 seats. The Caravan and PC-12 are very appropriately apportioned the second-highest value of subsidies, but then it’s right back to jets with 65-76 seat RJs pulling in $61 million a year and narrowbodies (narrowbodies!!!) receiving $43 million - $19 million of which is dedicated to the aforementioned routes operated by JetBlue and Breeze.

Of course, there exists political drama around the continued funding of the Essential Air Service program, but that political drama is still second to, well, all of the other endless political drama today. As of the latest October 2024 report from the DOT, almost $600 million is spent each year in Essential Air Service subsidies.

Given the political will to cut the annual federal budget deficit, the termination of the Essential Air Service program could trim the annual shortfall down from $1.9 trillion all the way to $1.8994 trillion. The elimination of the Essential Air Service would reduce overall expenditures by 0.00882%. (This figure does not consider any impact on tax revenues from economies benefiting today from the EAS program.)

Put another way, only 3,166 other programs the size of the EAS will need to be cut to resolve the budget shortfall - before it grows.

Math used to be fun…

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