WASHINGTON — A key congressional committee has voted to keep a controversial subsidy that pays for commercial airline flights with few to no passengers on board.
The only reason airlines are flying the routes is that your tax dollars are picking up most of the tab. In some cases, the flights are so short, a car ride could be faster.
The flights are based out of small airports in towns like Beckley, West Virginia, Altoona, Pennsylvania, and Great Bend, Kansas.
[READ: Tax dollars wasted on empty airline flights]
Your tax dollars subsidize every seat on this plane, filled or not, paying in many cases hundreds of dollars in taxpayer money toward the cost of every ticket.
Two years ago, Channel 2 Action News flew some of the routes, but didn't have much company.
“An airline so reckless with its funds would quickly bankrupt itself,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-California.
It's called the Essential Air Service program, designed to service to the nation's smallest airports.
Last week, the House transportation committee voted to keep it going. The program had been cut from an aviation funding bill, but an Alaska congressman fought that and won
[READ: State lawmakers flying high on taxpayers' dime]
“(We need) mandatory funding for essential air service. In the bill we'd have lost it, we got it back in,” Rep. Don Young, R- Alaska, told Channel 2’s Justin Gray.
One of the most expensive subsidies in the entire country is the 80-mile trip from Macon to Atlanta.
It would only take about an hour and 15 minutes by car. But taxpayers are subsidizing each ticket by nearly $1,000.
“That is crazy. That's just a giant waste of money. I’m guessing it’s not a two-seater plane,” said Boston resident Mitch Phillips.
The airline providing the Macon flight has suspended service, but the government is actively looking for a new airline to continue the flights.
Sixty of the airports that provide the subsidized flights are just a short drive away, less than 210 miles from a larger airport.
Cox Media Group
