SNOWE, COLLINS PUSH FOR CONTINUATION OF COMMERCIAL AIR SERVICE TO MAINE COMMUNITIES

WASHINGTON, D.C.-U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) today signed a bipartisan letter to the Senate leadership requesting that the Fiscal Year 2006 budget resolution not include any provision that would eliminate commercial air service to communities that participate in the Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service Program and that the funding for the EAS program be maintained at least at the same $102 million level as for the current fiscal year. "This funding decision is of critical importance to communities in Maine if they are to remain accessible and connected to the rest of the nation," Snowe and Collins said in a joint statement. "Many of them would be unable to provide the necessary funding if they are cut out of the EAS program, causing them to lose commercial air service. This would be a tragedy for the countless communities and their economies that depend on having access to these services."

The towns in Maine that would be affected by this funding decision are Augusta, Rockland, Presque Isle, and Bar Harbor.

Congress established the Essential Air Service Program in 1978 to ensure that communities that had commercial air service before deregulation continue to receive scheduled service. Without EAS, many rural communities would have no commercial air service at all.

The Essential Air Service Program currently ensures commercial air service to around 100 communities in thirty-six states. EAS supports an additional 37 communities in Alaska. Because of increasing costs and the continuing financial turndown in the aviation industry, particularly among commuter airlines, about 37 additional communities have been forced into the EAS program since 9/11/2001.

The proposed changes to EAS in the FY06 budget would eliminate commercial air service to 27 communities and require others to pay up to hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain their commercial air service.

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