The Trump Administration is again calling for steep cuts to the Essential Air Service program, which subsidizes passenger flights to more than 100 small communities across the U.S., including Rutland, Vermont, Lebanon, New Hampshire and Plattsburgh, New York.
The White House included cutting $372 million in discretionary funding for the program in its fiscal year 2027 budget proposal, calling current EAS spending “out of control” and arguing it “subsidizes half-empty flights from airports that are within easy commuting distance from each other.”
Though traffic at Rutland-Southern Vermont Regional Airport is not high, local officials and airport advocates say the EAS program is vital to the area’s economy.
“The Essential Air Service subsidy is just that. It is essential,” said Rutland Mayor Tom Donahue about the initiative, which helps fund flights at Vermont's only other commercial airport besides Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport roughly 70 miles away.
“We get access to Boston with three round trips a day, seven days a week,” he said. That’s a significant calling card for the region… for people to come and go whether they’re visiting and skiing or doing business here.”
Rutland's airport is about a three-hour drive from Boston Logan International Airport, which offers far more flights around the U.S. and the world than Burlington International. A flight between the two cities on one of Cape Air's nine-seat planes takes just over an hour.
Donahue credits the federal subsidies for helping maintain affordable ticket prices for those flights, with one-way fares starting at $79.
Jim Marsh chairs the Rutland Airport Committee, a group of locals who have been pushing the state to expand and upgrade Rutland’s airport to accommodate larger planes.
“With the hotel going in downtown Rutland and with Killington [Ski Resort] expanding, we just need another form of transportation, rather than train or vehicles, to get people up here,” said Marsh. “People are willing to come if we can provide the service."
The Essential Air Service program is an important part of that equation, he said.
The federal government established the EAS program in 1978 after the airline industry was deregulated to ensure small communities maintained a minimum level of scheduled passenger service. This is not the first time its funding has been targeted for cuts.
Congress has the final say on the federal budget, and last year lawmakers rejected previous cuts the Trump Administration called for and approved $514 million for the EAS program.
“We’ve gone through this so many years, with different administrations,” said Cape Air CEO Michael Migliore.
Cape Air has provided passenger flights to Rutland since 2007 and to Lebanon, New Hampshire since 2008.
In 2025, Migliore said Cape Air’s Rutland flights served just under 10,000 passengers, which he said was down around 7% from before the COVID-19 pandemic. Ridership for the first quarter of 2026 is up 1% compared to last year, he added.
For their daily three round-trip flights between Rutland and Boston, Migliore said Cape Air currently receives $2.6 million dollars in EAS funding. Their average load factor, or percentage of seats filled, was about 55%, with business picking up in the summer.
"It's important to understand that these flights are not designed to operate like high-density routes between major cities," said Migliore. Rather, he said they're meant to ensure that communities like Rutland remain connected to the national transportation network.
As to the Trump Administration's proposed cuts, “’I'm not going to say that I’m not concerned," admitted Migliore. “But we continue to have discussions with our communities and the Department of Transportation. We know that we’re connecting families for healthcare, for business, and we know how important it is connecting communities to the national air system.”
