Congress to settle on cuts to rural airports

WASHINGTON — Passenger flights to the north country appear safe from elimination as Congress weighs cuts to rural aiports.

The Essential Air Service program, which subsidizes flights to Watertown, Ogdensburg and Massena, and the Small Community Airports Development program have survived recent challenges on Capitol Hill. A House-Senate conference committee will make a decision on funding levels for the current fiscal year — which began Oct. 1 — perhaps in time for votes in the House and Senate next week.

The programs face some of their toughest challenges in recent years as skeptical conservatives assert more influence in Congress and lawmakers are forced to look for cuts across a wide range of domestic programs. Even when the economy has not been hurting, the Essential Air Service program has faced calls for deep cuts or outright elimination.

Conferees will weigh a Senate-passed bill that cuts EAS from $200 million to $193 million, and a House version that cuts $50 million, taking the total down to $150 million.

Cuts would be achieved by reducing the number of airports that qualify. Northern New York airports at this point appear safe from that restriction, spared because of their distance from the medium hub in Buffalo, but final details must be determined by the conference committee.

The funding numbers include $50 million in overflight fees from the Federal Aviation Administration, in addition to the appropriation from Congress.

A separate measure authorizing FAA programs trims the number of EAS airports, including eliminating service to Jamestown. That measure has been signed into law, meaning only a waiver from the federal Department of Transportation can save service to those airports.

The Small Community Airports Development Program survived an elimination effort by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in a 57-41 rejection by the Senate earlier this month. That grant program has been used occasionally at north country airports, but not in the past few years, Rep. William L. Owens’s office reported.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., hailed the survival of the rural airports funding in a conference call with reporters at the time but said he didn’t know how those programs might fare as the congressional deficit “supercommittee” looks for cuts to a wide range of domestic programs.

An additional program that pays for projects at airports, the Airport Improvement Program, received no cut in the Senate and a small cut in the House.