CEDAR CITY, Utah — As the government shutdown extends to nearly a week, a new impact may affect travel out of Utah's rural airports, as funding that helps subsidize airlines flying out of smaller areas could end this weekend.
If the shutdown continues past Sunday, funding for the Essential Air Service (EAS) will come to a halt, and airports in Moab, Vernal and Cedar City could see turbulence. The EAS is a government program that funds carriers to continue flying out of rural airports despite the routes being unprofitable.
With the deadline quickly approaching, Canyonlands Airport Director Steve Gleason took immediate action during a Monday board meeting, assuring officials that flights will still be able to utilize the airport during one of its busiest months.
"We’re going to keep those flights going no matter what," Gleason said.
Because Grand County and the airlines share the financial risk if Canyonlands Airport is shuttered, Gleason said the flights are too crucial to the area’s economy to be grounded.
"You can track visitors to Moab, and you can track all the transient room tax and revenues to the city and county. It really follows our enplanements really well," he explained. "So when our enplanements are down, all of those things are down. When they’re up, those things are up. It really connects us to the rest of the world.
Here's where Utah employees impacted by government shutdown should turn:
Contour Airlines operates daily flights to Denver and Phoenix from the Moab airport. Those flights often fail to turn a profit and are subsidized by the county and, in turn, the federal government. In larger regional airports like Cedar City, that subsidy goes directly to the airlines, such as SkyWest, which operates daily connecting flights to larger destinations.
"[The flights help] support that hub and spoke system that a lot of these airports have, so in a sense, Salt Lake International, we are a spoke to that hub, so our community can access the whole airline market of the U.S. So it just helps so we can connect," said Cedar City Regional Airport Director Tyler Galetka.
Galetka warned that an EAS funding pause due to the government shutdown could translate into delays and even cancellations in southern Utah.
"It’s really the determination of the airline if they wish to continue flying in and out of Cedar City," he said. "They’re flying 100% at risk."
Any disruption could mean SkyWest's 12 weekly flights could be dramatically scaled back.
"We’re hopeful that we could find some sort of solution," Galatka shared.
