Aviation

Promoting Air Service and Keeping West Virginians Flying

Reliable, affordable air service and modern airports are an important part of West Virginia's infrastructure and are absolutely necessary to continue to attract businesses and visitors to our state. To keep West Virginia's airports connected to the national aviation system, Senator Rockefeller has fought for increased funding for the Essential Air Service program and created the Small Community Air Service Development Pilot program.

Through his leadership on the Senate Aviation Subcommittee, Senator Rockefeller is a leading voice on how best to improve West Virginia's regional and general aviation airports, and similar facilities nationwide. He has brought his unique expertise to bear during the work on the AIR-21 Act, landmark legislation that provided billions of dollars in federal aid to states like West Virginia to modernize airports, attract new air service, and level the playing field between urban and rural airports.

To help keep ticket prices down and attract major airlines to the state, Senator Rockefeller has worked to provide millions in subsidies to air carriers to provide Essential Air Service (EAS) in West Virginia. Currently, the EAS program allocates over $2 million a year to provide service to five West Virginia communities to ensure that they remain connected to the national aviation network. As a result, a number of large commercial airlines, such as Continental, US Airways and United, have provided service from West Virginia airports to places like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Dulles, and Houston over the years.

To increase air service and help offset the cost of higher ticket fares from small airports, Senator Rockefeller authored the Small Community Air Service Development Program. The funding awards are used to promote and market a local airport to major commercial carriers by providing revenue guarantees or offering current carriers financial incentives for upgrading their service. Coupled with this, Rockefeller also authored a regional jet loan guarantee program for service to small communities as an incentive for start-up airlines to provide regional jet service to small communities throughout the state.