Year Identified: 2011

Area Number: 42

Area Type: Cost Savings & Revenue Enhancement

Action:

Congress may wish to consider updating eligibility criteria and targeting service, including terminating service at airports that are less remote from medium- or large-hub airports as well as changing other program criteria to consolidate subsidized air service.

Progress:

The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012^[1] updates eligibility criteria and limits program eligibility, including the following changes:

• Only locations that have at least 10 enplanements per day during the most recent fiscal year beginning after September 30, 2012, except for locations beyond 175 miles of a large- or medium-hub airport, are considered eligible under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program, but the Secretary of Transportation is allowed to restore eligibility if certain conditions are met. Alaska and Hawaii are exempted from this change.
• For communities in the 48 contiguous United States, eligibility is limited to communities that, at any time between September 30, 2010 and September 30, 2011, (1) received Essential Air Service, or (2) received a 90-day notice of intent to terminate air service from an air carrier and the Secretary of Transportation required the air carrier to continue service.

[1] FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, Pub. L. No. 112-95, (2012).

Action:

Congress may wish to consider revising the program’s operating requirements for providing air service to communities to improve efficiency and to better match capacity with community use.

Progress:

Appropriations and authorization legislation revised the Essential Air Service (EAS) program's requirements that airlines must meet to operate air service for communities. These revisions better match communities’ use of airline service, as GAO suggested in March 2011. Specifically, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012 eliminated the requirement, discussed in GAO's July 2009 report, that aircraft providing service under the EAS program have a minimum 15-seat passenger capacity for fiscal year 2012. (Pub. L. No. 112-55 (2011)) so that airlines may provide service with smaller aircraft that matches a community’s use. Additional legislation (Pub. L. No. 116-6 (2019)) extended the elimination of the requirement through September 30, 2019.

Further, the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 added new language to the Small Community Air Service Development program requiring the Secretary of Transportation to give priority in making grants under the program to communities that submit an application to consolidate air service into one regional airport ((49 U.S.C. § 41743(c)(5)(G)), although, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT), the department has not received any applications proposing consolidation of air service to one regional airport. Recognizing that certain locations have different operational capacity needs, DOT has, for example, selected airlines to provide subsidized service to the airport in Bar Harbor, ME, with aircraft that have more capacity during their peak summer season. Congress codified this DOT practice in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (Pub. Law No. 115-254).

Action:

Congress may wish to consider assessing multimodal solutions, such as more cost-effective bus service to hub airports or air taxi service, to provide communities alternatives to Essential Air Service (EAS).

Progress:

As of March 2020, Congress had not taken specific legislative action to assess multimodal solutions, as GAO suggested in July 2009, and GAO has determined that the matter is no longer necessary. Communities eligible for EAS can use subsidies for multimodal approaches to connect to the national air system. For example, communities taking advantage of the Alternate EAS can use on-demand taxi service. Communities can also use other existing Department of Transportation (DOT) programs for multimodal alternatives to connect to air service. For example, DOT awarded Small Community Air Service Development Program grants to the Northern Colorado Regional Airport in Loveland, CO, in 2011 and the Sanford Seacoast Regional Airport in Sanford, ME, in 2013 to support intermodal service.

During GAO’s December 2019 review of the EAS program, none of the communities and airports GAO spoke to that receive air service through EAS expressed an interest in connecting to the national air system via bus or train instead of via a flight from their local airport. For example, Pendleton, OR airport officials indicated that the community already has bus service to the large-hub airport in Portland, OR, but air service from Pendleton to Portland is more convenient for those that have difficulty travelling or do not want to drive. In addition, bus service might not operate to allow people to catch their flights; for example, a Fort Dodge, IA airport official said that a bus would not have a schedule that would allow people to catch their flights. As a result, GAO has closed this action as not addressed and will no longer track implementation.

Action:

The Department of Transportation (DOT) may wish to consider assessing multimodal solutions, such as more cost-effective bus service to hub airports or air taxi service, to provide communities alternatives to Essential Air Service (EAS).

Progress:

In responding to our 2012 report, Department of Transportation officials stated that the department is prepared to consider multimodal or surface solutions should communities choose to apply to participate in the “"Alternate EAS"” program authorized by the Vision 100 – Century of Aviation Reauthorization.