The U.S. Department of Transportation said it has secured an additional $111 million in funding for the Essential Air Service program.
Because of the U.S. government shutdown, which started on Oct. 1, the EAS program initially was to run out of money by Oct. 12. The DOT on Oct. 9 secured $41 million to keep the service afloat through early November.
EAS serves rural communities with subsidies to airlines to operate routes that typically are not profitable. The state of Alaska is one of the largest benefactors of the program.
Airline CEOs and other executives last week attended a roundtable with Vice President JD Vance and DOT Secretary Sean Duffy to discuss the effect of the shutdown on the country's transportation system.
Source: Business Travel News