Time to end the Essential Air Service

So essentially the US taxpayer is paying airlines a rather substantial subsidy, including a profit margin to entice them to operate to communities that could not support air travel otherwise. Basically any airport that had service prior to deregulation is eligible for EAS provided they are more than 70 miles from the nearest commercial airport. Here is the entire list of cities served by this program as of May 2010 can be read here. Some cities are extremely close to major airports that in many cases are airline hubs. Two that stuck out to me immediately were Jackson, TN, and Jonesboro, AR. Both of these cities are 60 to 90 minutes from Memphis International Airport. Is there any reason why we the taxpayers should be paying airlines to fly to cities like these that enplane less than 50 passengers a day and are an easy drive to a major airport? Some states with powerful Senators and Congressmen have added pork to keep air service to towns that are in close proximity to one another, and not all that far from a commercial airport. If you look at the spreadsheet I to which I linked, the kings of subsidized airline pork include West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, including the late John Murtha’s pork laden Johnstown Airport. That particular airport is currently getting a second parallel runway built long enough to support large jets, but that is a different subject for a different blog post.