Grounded Nebraska Plains Town Taxes Itself to Attract Air Service; Rural Outposts Struggle to Keep Connection With Passenger Aviation
No longer do the small Beech 1900 turboprops of GP Express Airlines roar off toward Denver or Alliance, Neb., twice daily. As of early March, the 6,000 residents here in the arid hills of western Nebraska were erased from the country's aviation map when the company determined that its service made no economic sense, even with large subsidies.</br></br>"I don't intend to drive that far," said Vinnie Olinger, 73, who flew 165 miles to Denver several times a year to see family. "People get a little bit older and they don't trust themselves in traffic."</br></br>Sidney's problem is typical of hundreds of small communities that have struggled to retain air service in an era of deregulation when the big airlines pulled out of small markets. Yearly, Congress debates programs such as the Essential Air Services Program, which has subsidized air service to hundreds of small cities and towns since 1977.</br></br>The debate is underway again this year. President Clinton's fiscal 1995 budget recommended tightening eligibility requirements and cutting the subsidy to $25.6 million, continuing a steady downsizing of the program that at its peak in 1981 cost $86.3 million. The House Appropriations Committee voted to kill the program, but some funding is likely to survive.</br></br>Each time, the debate is framed this way: In an era of tight budgets and good highways, can the country afford to subsidize air service for rural America? Is the service really needed?