Montana Senator Max Baucus: Essential Air Service Is Essential For Montana Jobs

Senator Says Montana Jobs Depend on Program

Montana’s senior U.S. Senator, Max Baucus is going to bat for rural Montana communities who face losing reliable air service. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) has offered an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill aiming to eliminate the Essential Air Services program that serves eight Montana communities. Baucus says Montana jobs depend on the program and he will beat back efforts to pull the plug on it.

"Essential Air Service is essential to Montana jobs. While it is important to rein in the deficit, axing programs like EAS will actually cut jobs, shrink the economy and diminish our ability in Montana to attract business to our state," said Baucus, senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee. "It’s important that we improve the program and boost efficiency – not drop it completely. I will not turn my back on communities who rely on EAS as a lifeline to reliable air travel and business."

Montana communities served by EAS include:

· Glasgow

· Glendive

· Havre

· Lewistown

· Miles City

· Sidney

· West Yellowstone

· Wolf Point

Additional Background Information:

Essential Air Service is a program that provides subsidies to attract airlines to small markets. The FAA bill provides additional resources so this program can expand to other communities and attract additional airlines to the communities that already receive EAS funds. Baucus is fighting efforts to strip funding for the program and working to provide smart incentives that encourage better service and reforms so that areas with lower passenger levels can continue to be served.

Baucus fought to restore Essential Air Service in 2008 when seven of the eight EAS airports in Montana lost commercial air service completely when Big Sky Airlines went out of business.

Production quality video and audio of Senator Baucus’ comments are available below.

· MP3 audio file: http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/baucus/020311_BAUCUS.mp3

· MPEG2 video file: http://gp1d.senate.gov/sdmc/Baucus/020311_BAUCUS_PF.mpg

· Pathfire Feed:

Slug: Baucus goes to bat for Essential Air Services

1. On the left side of the Pathfire/DMG main page, click on Video News Feed (Master VNF Locator).

2. From the expanded list, double-click on VNF Provider B.

3. Click the U.S. Senate tab.

4. Locate and click (MT1) MT, Baucus. The link to the video will be displayed in the pane on the right.

For further instructions, visit http://democrats.senate.gov/tv/pathfire/baucus.pdf.