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A compromise has been reached between the House and Senate versions of the FAA Reauthorization Bill that continues funding for the Essential Air Service without earlier provisions that likely would have disqualified Chadron, Alliance, and McCook.
The measure worked out by a House-Senate conference committee passed the full House Friday, with the Senate expected to follow suit shortly and the president signing it within a few weeks.
The original House version set a flat minimum of 10 passengers per day, but the compromise version makes an exception for those more than 175 driving miles from the nearest large- or medium-sized airport...an exception that applies to Chadron, Alliance, and McCook.
Nebraska Democratic Senator Ben Nelson calls it "an important victory for Nebraska and for rural communities across the United States," with the Essential Air Service program and its subsidies an investment in economic development for rural America whose elimination would be a step backwards.
Nebraska Northwest Economic Development Corporation executive director Deb Cottier agrees. She says it's vital for communities such as Chadron to have scheduled air service if they want to attract new businesses, especially ones with a number of offices or locations.
Cottier says EAS and scheduled air service is important because without it, an airport such as Chadron would probably be downgraded to general aviation classification...taking away grant funds for equipment and many safety improvements.
Alliance Airport Manager Lynn Placek was very happy to hear about the new compromise, calling EAS "vital to the economic growth progress of smaller communities and the need to be connected to larger cities," and appreciating Nelson's leadership role in the fight.
The FAA bill also has good news for the Western Nebraska Regional Airport in Scottsbluff: a moratorium on the 10,000 passenger threshold for medium-sized airports to qualify for a million dollars a year in federal aviation safety funds. Scottsbluff has come up short each of the past 3 years and got only $150,000 each time..
The moratorium had been in place after 9/11, but the failure by Congress to pass the reauthorization bill left the airports hanging. This version restores it retroactively for the calendar years 2009 and 2010, meaning Scottsbluff will receive the remaining $850,000 each of those years.
Scotts Bluff County Airport Authority Chairman and longtime rural air service advocate Don Overman says passage of the bill was a long time coming. The additional money will be added to the Scottsbluff airport budget this year and next, which Overman says it vital for the airport to provide necessary services and make needed safety upgrades.
The EAS program was created after the airline industry was deregulated in 1978, and had the intent to guarantee that small communities would continue to be served by commercial airlines
The last full FAA reauthorization expired 4 years ago, with the agency and its programs....including the EAS...kept alive with a series of short-term extensions that occasionally resulted in temporary reductions in a wide range of services.
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