Airlines Serving Rural W.Va. To Lose Subsidies If Shutdown Continues

Airlines that service five rural airports in West Virginia are expected to lose federal subsidies if the government shutdown continues past Monday. 

Airports say they expect flights to continue – for now.

The Essential Air Service (EAS) program, created under the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1978, was designed to guarantee a minimum number of daily flights at small rural airports. 

The flights are subsidized, but, if the government shutdown continues past Oct. 13, those subsidies are expected to stop.

At the Morgantown Municipal Airport, SkyWest Airlines provides roundtrip daily flights to Washington and Chicago, according to airport director Jonathan Vrabel.

“It will be up to SkyWest to determine if they want to continue flying without being paid,” Vrabel said. 

The federal government is expected to reimburse the airlines that continue flights, Vrabel said, “but there’s no timeline on how quickly that reimbursement will come.” 

At the North Central West Virginia Airport in Bridgeport, Contour Airlines offers two flights per day to Charlotte, North Carolina. They average about 1,000 customers per month, said airport director Richard B. Rock.

“It could certainly affect us,” Rock said. 

“Right now, there’s been no disruption of flight services. We received notice yesterday (Monday) that the funding for Essential Air Service, if the government does not come back on, will run out October 13. Basically they said that the airlines at that point may be flying at their own risk as far as their subsidies they receive.”

In West Virginia the EAS program operates at Raleigh County Memorial Airport in Beckley, North Central West Virginia Airport in Bridgeport, Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg, Morgantown Municipal Airport, and Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport in Parkersburg.