Evaluating the efficiency of the Essential Air Service program in the United States

Tony Grubesic and Fangwu Wei

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2012, vol. 46, issue 10, 1562-1573

Abstract: Essential Air Service (EAS) is a federally funded program in the United States that provides connecting, commercial air service between rural communities and their nearest large or medium commercial hub airport. During fiscal year 2010, $170million dollars were spent to provide this service to 107 communities in the US. However, with significant variations in subsidies to each airport (ranging from $427,757 to $3,082,403) and marked differences in passengers served, there are serious concerns regarding the overall efficiency of the EAS program. The purpose of this paper is to use data envelopment analysis integrated in a geographic information system for evaluating service efficiencies at the community level. Policy implications and strategies to improve the EAS program are discussed.

Keywords: Essential Air Service; Accessibility; Spatial analysis; Airports; Rural transportation; Efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856412001346
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transa:v:46:y:2012:i:10:p:1562-1573

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2012.08.004

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice is currently edited by John (J.M.) Rose

More articles in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().