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

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  • Grubesic, Tony H.
  • Murray, Alan T.
  • Matisziw, Timothy C.

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Grubesic, Tony H. & Murray, Alan T. & Matisziw, Timothy C., 2013. "A strategic approach for improving rural air transport in the United States," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 117-124.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:30:y:2013:i:c:p:117-124
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.09.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Reynolds-Feighan, Aisling & McLay, Peter, 2006. "Accessibility and attractiveness of European airports: A simple small community perspective," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 313-323.
    2. Grubesic, Tony H. & Wei, Fangwu, 2012. "Evaluating the efficiency of the Essential Air Service program in the United States," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1562-1573.
    3. Grubesic, Tony H. & Matisziw, Timothy C. & Murray, Alan T., 2012. "Assessing geographic coverage of the essential air service program," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 124-135.
    4. Grubesic, Tony H. & Wei, Fangwu, 2013. "Essential Air Service: a local, geographic market perspective," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 17-25.
    5. Matisziw, Timothy C. & Lee, Chieh-Lung & Grubesic, Tony H., 2012. "An analysis of essential air service structure and performance," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 5-11.
    6. Bennett, Vivienne L. & Eaton, David J. & Church, Richard L., 1982. "Selecting sites for rural health workers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 63-72, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tony Grubesic & Ran Wei & Alan Murray & Fangwu Wei, 2016. "Essential Air Service in the United States," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 39(1), pages 108-130, January.
    2. Wu, Hanjun & Hong Tsui, Kan Wai & Ngo, Thanh & Lin, Yi-Hsin, 2020. "Impacts of aviation subsidies on regional wellbeing: Systematic review, meta-analysis and future research directions," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 215-239.
    3. Alan T. Murray, 2016. "Maximal Coverage Location Problem," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 39(1), pages 5-27, January.
    4. Yongha Park & Morton E O’Kelly, 2017. "Exploring accessibility from spatial interaction data: An evaluation of the Essential Air Service (EAS) program in the contiguous US air transport system," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(4), pages 930-951, April.
    5. Wittman, Michael D., 2014. "Public funding of airport incentives in the United States: The efficacy of the Small Community Air Service Development Grant program," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 220-228.
    6. Calzada, Joan & Fageda, Xavier, 2014. "Competition and public service obligations in European aviation markets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 104-116.

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