Small Cities On Edge As Airlines Talk Of Leaving

With its three flights that take off each day, Delta Air Lines has given the 26,000 residents of Aberdeen, S.D., a fast connection to the rest of the nation and world.

"We are about 75 miles from an interstate," says Mike Wilson, the city's transportation director, "so we're fairly secluded here."

But starting today, Delta is offering only two daily flights from Aberdeen. And the world's second-biggest airline, which is the lone carrier flying in and out of the city, says it needs a subsidy from the federal government to keep flying there at all.

The prospect of Aberdeen being without air service -- and the economic lifeblood it carries -- is hard for Wilson to fathom. "It could definitely have some far-reaching effects for our community," he says.

In a time of mergers, fluctuating fuel prices and economic turbulence, airlines are pulling out of many small cities such as Aberdeen because they say it no longer makes financial sense. And the federal program that has subsidized air service to many of them is in jeopardy as Congress must cut $1.5 trillion from the nation's debt in the next decade.

Delta seeks to exit 15 small cities such as Thief River Falls, Minn., and get federal subsidies or increased government assistance to continue flying to nine others such as Aberdeen, Sioux City, Iowa, and Butte, Mont. Of the 24 cities, Delta is the sole carrier for all but one, the South Dakota capital of Pierre.

AirTran, which is merging with Southwest, earlier this month announced it would stop flying to four small-city airports next year: Asheville (N.C.) Regional; Atlantic City International; Quad City International in Moline, Ill; and Newport News/Williamsburg International in Virginia.

"This is a trend in the last couple of years and that trend may continue," Bijan Vasigh, a professor of air transport finance at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, says of the withdrawals.

Lower profits for an industry hard hit during the recession and higher fuel costs are among the reasons for service cuts to small cities, he says.

"Another reason is the amount of mergers in the U.S. airline industry," Vasigh says. "We have (fewer) airlines, therefore, they don't need to really compete with each other. They don't need to have frequent flights servicing different destinations."

AirTran says it began considering not flying to the four airports it wants to pull out of before its merger with Southwest, though its every move now is viewed with regard to what's best for the new low-cost megacarrier.

"While the primary reasons for this decision are the current economic reality and high fuel prices, we must also take into account the long-term effect of these types of decisions on the newly combined company," says AirTran spokesman Christopher White.

Safety net in place, for now

Air service to roughly 700 communities, many of them rural, is protected by the federal Essential Air Service (EAS) program, which provides subsidies to airlines when necessary to make sure places that might otherwise be bypassed remain connected to the nation's flight network.

EAS, which was created after the airline industry was deregulated in 1978 and has a current annual budget of $200 million, is subsidizing service to 153 communities, according to the Transportation Department.

But that safety net is shrinking. The EAS program has been criticized as spending too much money to ferry too few passengers. Legislation passed earlier this month to extend the operating authority of the Federal Aviation Administration included new criteria that would eliminate flight subsidies for 13 airports, such as Morgantown, W.Va., Jonesboro, Ark., and Jackson, Tenn.

Yet, increasingly, airlines say they need government assistance to continue flying to some small cities.