The Trump administration’s “Skinny” 2026 budget request includes a $308 million proposal cut to the Essential Air Service (EAS) program to subsidize local airline flights to rural communities across the United States.
Such a budget decline will spend a significant majority of last year’s discretionary US spending of $349 million in flights to small and non-hub airports.
Trump’s budget request calls on Congress to adopt $163 billion in discretionary non-defense spending cuts, with a 13% increase in defense spending.
Rather than a detailed budget proposal, the Skinny Budget represents the president’s high-level spending priorities, signaling potential areas of focus amid Trump’s government’s cost cuts.
Under the “reductions, reductions and integration” section of Trump’s budget proposal, announced May 2, the administration said “we are unable to effectively provide support to most rural travelers by commuting airlines with taxpayer dollars to airlines to subsidize half of the flights from airports within easy commute distances from each other.”
Expenses on the program are “out of control,” the administration added, “more than doubled between 2021 and 2025.” The budget proposal is the “rein” EAS, subsidized by a “combination of reforms to adjust eligibility and grant rates.”
“This will save US taxpayers more than $300 million in savings from the 2025 level,” the administration says.
The US spent $142 million on its 2021 EAS flight. Meanwhile, airline travel was destroyed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the year before the 2019 pandemic, the US spent $175 million on local flight subsidies.
The EAS program has connected small and remote communities since airline deregulation in 1978, weathering regular criticism to support unprofitable routes that are unlikely to exist. The program has been covered by the Hawks on the budget for decades, but spending on the program has been rising in recent years.
The Regional Airline Association (RAA), an industry advocacy group, says Trump’s budget proposal is a “start.”
“In collaboration with the White House and Congress, we show that the Essential Air Services program is a multiplier of economic forces that is important for small and rural communities. While promoting at least $134 billion in economic impact, supporting one million jobs, and providing $36 billion in local wages and corresponding tax revenue, residents said Faye Malarkey Black, the nation’s CEO.
“As we work to protect this critical investment, we welcome the collaborative efforts to review and revitalize our programs and ensure we provide our commitment to maintaining remote communities through safe and reliable aviation services,” she adds.
Malarkey previously described the EAS program as a “lifeline” for a small community.
The initiative will provide a stable revenue stream for the local airlines themselves.
Funding for the program comes in part from overflight fees raised from foreign airlines flying overhead but not landing in the US. The US collected $154 million from these fees last year.
In particular, its funding sources have also been under threat recently, as the February Congressional Committee considered eliminating excessive flight fees. The RAA has called on Congress to protect the program as part of the US budget adjustment process. The committee did not take any measures to change or eliminate overflight fees.
