A federal program that subsidizes flights to small airports across the country could significantly shrink, if President Donald Trump gets his way.

The Essential Air Service program has been around since Congress’ 1978 deregulation of the airline industry. Before then, the federal government dictated where major airlines flew their planes and how much they charged for those flights. That changed with deregulation, but lawmakers feared airlines might abandon some rural communities. So they created Essential Air Service (EAS), which subsidizes flights to over 170 small airports. It’s still around — awarding contracts to airlines and airports this fiscal year at a total cost of nearly $600 million.

But in its budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which begins in October, the Trump administration proposed slashing that funding in half by changing the program’s eligibility requirements. The reccomendation argues the program subsidizes “half-empty flights from airports that are within easy commuting distance from each other, while also failing to effectively provide assistance to most rural air travelers.”

In EAS communities, local leaders say the change could hurt their economies and cut off a critical transportation method for residents with few alternatives.

Plattsburgh, New York, is one small city that’s received EAS flights for decades. Rae Torres grew up there, but when she needed to fly, she would typically drive about an hour and a half to the airport in Burlington, Vermont. That drive includes a ferry ride across Lake Champlain.

“So you'd have to leave at, like, three in the morning,” she said. “If you missed the ferry, then you had to wait longer. It just created so much more of a nightmare because of the extra cost and time.” 

A year ago, Torres moved to Miami. When she came back to visit her family for the first time this summer, she instead flew right into Plattsburgh.

“Now, this was nice. I got picked up, like, as my brother went home from work,” she said.

The flight she took is subsidized by the Essential Air Service program. Plattsburgh had an EAS route when Torres lived here, but for years, it wasn’t the most comfortable experience for many flyers, according to Chris Kreig, the airport’s director.

“We've had everything from a nine passenger Cessna 402, we had a 19 passenger Beech 1900,” Kreig said, referring to past EAS contracts that have served the airport.

Those are pretty small planes. Not your typical commercial flight. 

But for the last few years, the Plattsburgh airport has had a federally-funded contract with Contour Airlines. The company flies 30-seat jets, a more traditional flying experience. They fly everyday to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., giving Plattsburgh residents access to connections all over the world. The route brings travelers into the Plattsburgh area too, noted Molly Ryan, economic development director for Clinton County, where Plattsburgh is located.

“That is tax dollars, that is sales tax revenue,” she said, standing in the airport concourse, watching as passengers got off a fairly full flight from Dulles. “That is people coming into the area, spending money in our restaurants, our stores, supporting local businesses. And so having that funding has a significant impact on our local economy.”

That funding from the federal government is potentially at risk. Though, not for the first time. When it was created in the late 1970s, the Essential Air Service program was going to be temporary.

“It was only supposed to last 10 years, from ‘78 to ‘88,” said Austin Drukker, an economist at the Federal Trade Commission. He wrote his dissertation in 2023 on the Essential Air Service program, and spoke to Marketplace in his personal capacity.

The program was made permanent in the ‘90s, but in 2012, Congress tightened its requirements, to reduce the number of airports in the program. Among the changes, Drukker said: “An airport could not be within 70 miles from a medium or large hub airport.”

Now, the Department of Transportation, which did not respond to an interview request, wants to tighten that eligibility even more. Under its proposal, if an EAS airport is within 75 miles of a small hub, like Burlington, Vermont, for example, it would no longer be eligible for the program.

Drukker said there’s an argument for this change. He studied flight booking data and found that about 60% of EAS airports in the continental U.S. are within 90 minutes’ drive of another airport, including small hubs. The vast majority of flyers in those EAS communities, he found, chose to make those drives.

“It kind of undermines the whole purpose of the program,” Drukker said.

But supporters of EAS say even if residents can drive to other airports, it doesn't mean they should have to.

“It's also a critical humanitarian service,” said Dan Bubb, an aviation historian and professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He said EAS flights are a way for people in rural areas to access medical specialists in larger cities.

“When you're dealing with people who have critical medical needs, who don't have access to the physician whom they need to see, the hospital they need to go to, that's where the Essential Air Service provides a critical fulfillment,” Bubb said.

But the program is also useful for less life-or-death situations. Like for Rae Torres coming back home to Plattsburgh from Miami.

“My brother was able to just leave the house and pretend he was going to the store, and my mom had no idea, because I flew right into Plattsburgh,” she said. “She had no idea I was coming. But no one had to, like, fake going to Vermont.”

That, she said, made her surprise visit all the better.