Delta plans to drop service to 24 small airports; could be a blow to federal subsidy program

UPDATE, July 16: Subsidies for 13 rural airports within a 90-mile radius of other airports would be cut, under a Senate plan that key House Republicans have decided to adopt, Bloomberg News reports.

Delta Air Lines announced today that it plans to longer serve 24 airports, most of them in rural areas that earned the company a federal subsidy for providing service. Delta said it would be willing to continue service to nine of the cities if the Essential Air Service subsidy is increased. (Photo by Mark Lawrence: Delta regional turboprop, type of aircraft used to serve many such airports)

"Delta and its regional partners are required to continue to serve the communities until the U.S. Department of Transportation can find a replacement carrier and funds it," Kelly Yamanouchi of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

"Delta said it has given the U.S. Department of Transportation 90 days to find replacement carriers for the subsidized routes, in some cases working with other airlines to bid on the services," Matt Molnar of NYC Aviation reports, listing the 24 cities. The nine for which it is seeking higher subsidies are in the Midwest and Northern Plains, Doug Cameron and Mia Lamar of Dow Jones Newswires report.

They write that Delta's move "could prove a severe blow to the system of federal subsidies for loss-making routes carrying just a handful of passengers per flight. . . . The EAS budget rose to more than $200 million last year supporting flights that carried a little over 100,000 passengers, making it a target for federal budget cutters and other critics who see the system as flawed."

The story notes that some flights have no passengers, and the two flights per day at Thief River Falls in northwest Minnesota each have four. Other cities with "load factors" of less than 45 percent on the list include Greenville, Miss.; Devils Lake, N.D.; Watertown, S.D.; Muscle Shoals, Ala.; Fort Dodge, Iowa; Hibbing, Minn.; Alpena, Mich.; Tupelo, Miss.; and Jamestown, N.D.