¿Les suena? Aeropuertos en pequeñas localidades, casi vacios, subvencionados, la mayoria probablemente innecesarios, ellos lo hicieron antes, como con casi todo xd


Algunos ejemplos:


- Sommerset, “aeropuerto a ninguna parte” y el congresista Hal Rogers


2009 Who might fly Somerset to D.C. and back? | Latest Local, State News | Kentucky.com

The lone commercial airline serving Republican Rep. Hal Rogers' hometown of Somerset offers discounted fares starting at $39 on half-empty nine-seat planes thanks to a $1 million taxpayer-subsidized grant.

Customers zip through security at Lake Cumberland Regional Airport's $3 million, federally funded commercial terminal, which sat virtually empty for three years as local officials struggled to get a carrier to provide service to the rural town of about 12,000 that sits 77 miles south of Lexington's Blue Grass Airport.

Next month, that long-awaited carrier, Locair, which currently offers four 45-minute round-trip flights to Nashville each week, will add service from Somerset to Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday mornings and Friday evenings — the same days and times government officials and companies with government contracts tend to travel back and forth between Washington and their hometowns.

Passengers will initially pay less than $200 per ticket. Taxpayers could pay upward of $2,000 per flight.

…

Since 2002, under the direction of Congress, the Department of Transportation has pumped $110 million into the Small Community Air Service Development Program, a pilot program that some small cities like Somerset, which have problems luring consistent air carrier service or are forced to pay high air fares, are using to heavily subsidize air service.

Over the past decade, Congress has also channeled more than $1 billion into the Essential Air Service program, a highly criticized program with a similar purpose of subsidizing flights to rural communities. Somerset does not participate in the Essential Air Service program.

In some cases, cities that participate in the programs are within easy driving distance of larger airports.

Somerset, for example, is a 90-minute drive south of Lexington, two and a half hours south of Louisville and roughly three hours north of Nashville.

A 2007 Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General review showed communities that netted Small Community Air Service Development Program grants have a 30 percent success rate in sustaining air service in the year after those grants expire.



2010 Somerset airport to lose funding, flights to and from D.C. | Latest Local, State News | Kentucky.com

A program to subsidize passenger air service from the Somerset airport has cost taxpayers more than $960,000, but with the subsidy about to end, the carrier plans to pull out after Friday.

Lynn Roy, president of Locair Inc., which most recently offered service to Baltimore and Washington, D.C., said there were periods when flights were full, but interviews and records obtained by the Herald-Leader show there were few passengers on some flights. Only one passenger was on board last month, for instance, along with two pilots, when the company's nine-seat plane slid off the runway while landing at Lake Cumberland Regional Airport.
"On a month-to-month basis, it was never really strong enough," Roy said.

The company sought more money from local governments to continue underwriting passenger service, but the county didn't have the money and the city couldn't foot the subsidy alone, officials said.

With the service gone, the airport won't be using its passenger terminal, funded with a $3 million federal grant, for the time being, airport manager Ron Swartz said.

…

Some local business leaders disagree that passenger service from Somerset is not feasible, however.

The Somerset-Pulaski County Development Foundation has hired a consultant for $22,000 to study the local market for passenger service.

House GOP Appoints 'Prince of Pork' Hal Rogers Chair of Appropriations Committee - ABC News



- Johnston, el aeropuerto para nadie y el congresista John Murtha


2009 Tyler Grimm: John Murtha’s Airport and Other Wasteful Earmarks - WSJ.com

If you hate the hubbub of crowded airports, you might want to consider flying out of Johnstown, Pa. The airport sees an average of fewer than 30 people per day, there is never a wait for security, you can park for free right outside the gate, and you are almost guaranteed a row to yourself on any flight.

You might wonder how the region ever had the air traffic demand to justify such a facility. It didn't. But it is located in the district of one of Congress's most unapologetic earmarkers: Democrat John Murtha.

In 20 years, Mr. Murtha has successfully doled out more than $150 million of federal payments to what is now being called the airport for no one. I took a trip to southwestern Pennsylvania to explore how this small town received so much money and whether the John Murtha Airport is a legitimate federal investment



- Macon


2009 Half-empty flights have some questioning federal subsidies - Related stories - Macon.com

On most days, the main terminal at Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon is virtually empty.

The few people who travel on the city’s lone commercial airline, Georgia Skies, follow a sign directing passengers next door to a privately owned terminal generally used by charter planes. Once inside, those passengers use their $39 tickets to travel 81 miles on half-empty nine-seat planes to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Georgia Skies launched its Macon service in September 2008 after receiving a $1.3 million taxpayer-funded subsidy that allows it to provide service to local travelers at a deep discount.

…

During the past decade, Congress has channeled more than $1 billion into the Essential Air Service program, which since 1978 has subsidized flights to small communities that have air service. Airlines servicing Macon have netted millions in Essential Air Service subsidies during the years.

In 2007, the Department of Transportation granted one of the largest Essential Air Service subsidies in history — about $2 million a year — to Atlantic Southeast Airlines to pay 60 percent of the carrier’s costs to make two roundtrip flights a day between Macon and Atlanta. ASA ended service to Macon last fall, citing high fuel costs and few passengers.

The lack of commercial passenger traffic at the regional airport fuels criticism of the Carter-era Essential Air Service program that, thanks to strong congressional support and intense lobbying, has eluded deep cuts by every presidential administration from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush. This year, 22 senators, among them moderate Republicans whose support has been critical to advancing President Obama’s agenda in Congress, signed a letter cautioning the administration against cutting the program.

…

Critics of the way the Essential Air Service program is structured, including the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, and the White House Office of Management and Budget, question the program’s efficiency.

“The budget also acknowledges that the program design is out of date and not cost effective,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a fact sheet issued regarding the 2010 budget and its impact on rural communities. “The administration has committed to develop with Congress a more sustainable program to fix these flaws.”

Lo nuestro es todavía peor, allí hay aeropuertos casi en cada "pueblo" y llaman aeropuerto a casi cualquier cosa, normalmente son aérodromos regionales de poca monta pero allí la cultura de la aviación regional es proporcionalmente inversa a la ferroviaria, al contrario que en Europa. Los yankis vuelan bastante y les gusta hacerlo desde cerca de casa.

Aquí lo que deberían haber sido aérodromos de poca monta son aeropuertos-pelotazo que han costazo un montón de millones.

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