Fourteen smallish airports will share $12 million in federal funding over the next five years to support growth of their commercial air service. The awards were announced on Thursday as part of the Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP).
Notable among the awards, all but one of the winners applied with a letter of support from an airline, indicating higher likelihood (but not a guarantee) that the service would launch if funded. Most of the winners also came to the table with sizable local government and private sector contributions to augment the federal funding. Six of the fourteen are funding more than half of their programs locally.
Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
United Airlines and American Airlines are each associated with four of the funded routes. Delta Air Lines picked up three while Breeze Airways is associated with two of the wins. The final route will likely be operated by Advanced Air or Grand Canyon Scenic.
A couple of the winners came to the table with questionable data to support their claims. Notably, Fairbanks argued “it has lost traffic due to lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and due to economic downturns abroad that have affected its tourism traffic.” American Airlines tried the now-awarded DFW-FAI route in 2021 and came up short blaming a lack of tourist infrastructure. But passenger numbers and flight volumes are back to 2019 levels today, without the subsidized service. No doubt the route is worth trying again with the cost offset, but the market recovery does not seem to be as bad as is pitched in the application.
Similarly, Elko, NV went through ups and downs in service as Delta dropped its 50-seat RJs and up-gauged the route to a larger plane with fewer frequencies. Delta has since switched to the CRJ550 and is driving much better loads and revenues, but only once a day. If it really is that successful one would assume the second flight could return without subsidy. But grabbing the revenue guarantee is a nice win for the airline.
Breeze cast a wide net, participating in nine of the applications. Its win in Ocean City/Salisbury, MD will yield a point-to-point route from Orlando. The Lansing win, however, could be a stopover spot for the company’s “BreezeThrough” service, connecting Newark with the west coast. Breeze joined in the winning application for Huntsville, AL to the NYC area which could extend west. Delta also endorsed that application, and there’s likely only enough funding for one to launch.
Read more:Small(ish) airports vie for $30+ million in US DOT support
The other winners are not particularly notable. Unless, of course, you’re in one of those markets and have a chance now for new flights.
An outlier among the winning entries, Columbus, Georgia scored $220k from the feds to support an advertising program while its airport is out of service for runway repairs. Delta currently flies thrice daily to Atlanta on the 83 mile route. Arguably that route could be more efficiently (and sustainably) served with bus service akin to the Landline operations, especially as the airport already admits it leaks passengers who just drive to Atlanta anyways. But buses aren’t as sexy as planes.
My full notes on the original applications are here. The DOT docket is here.
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