Commercial Aviation: Air Service to Small Communities Continues to Face Challenges
What GAO Found In general, small communities continue to face declining scheduled passenger air service, especially at nonhub airports—airports that have more than 10,000 annual commercial passenger boardings but less than 0.05 percent of the annual total of U.S. commercial passenger boardings. At these airports, the average number of daily departures per route in 2024 was 19 percent lower than the 2018 level. Over 70 percent of nonhub airports that were not receiving federal support from the Essential Air Service (EAS) program experienced a decline in average daily departures per route from 2018 to 2024. Percentage Change from 2018 to 2024 in Average Daily Departures per Route for Nonhub A.
Reported by Maria LopezCommercial Aviation: Air Service to Small Communities Continues to Face Challenges.
The item is dated Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:26:00 -0400.
TeamCog is carrying it as a audits report from GAO reports and testimonies RSS.
What GAO Found In general, small communities continue to face declining scheduled passenger air service, especially at nonhub airports—airports that have more than 10,000 annual commercial passenger boardings but less than 0.05 percent of the annual total of U.S. commercial passenger boardings.
At these airports, the average number of daily departures per route in 2024 was 19 percent lower than the 2018 level.
Over 70 percent of nonhub airports that were not receiving federal support from the Essential Air Service (EAS) program experienced a decline in average daily departures per route from 2018 to 2024.
Percentage Change from 2018 to 2024 in Average Daily Departures per Route for Nonhub A…
The handoff preserves the official source citation and source-completeness evidence supplied by discovery.
Official Source
GAO reports and testimonies RSS. Accessed 2026-06-08T11:15:06.192Z.