Airport gambles on slot machines

It is called the Essential Air Service program, but it props up air travel used by very few people. Five airports in West Virginia are among the 100 around the country where tickets are subsidized by the federal government.

The program began nearly 29 years ago, when President Carter and a Democratic Congress deregulated the airline industry.

The propping up of air service few people want is an expensive proposition.

"Excluding Alaska, where many air routes are subsidized, the Transportation Department paid out about $74 for each one-way passenger in the program in fiscal 2005, the New York Times reported last fall. "That is more than Amtrak's famously large per-passenger subsidy, which is $19 to $52, depending on how it is calculated."

While a case can be made for making federal taxpayers subsidize airlines to keep service to remote communities, why do taxpayers have to subsidize air travel to Lancaster, Pa.? It is only 66 miles from Philadelphia, which has direct flights to all over.

Pueblo, Colo., is only 40 miles from a major airport in Colorado Springs. But federal taxpayers still subsidize travel to the tune of $255 per ticket, one way, to Denver, which is 110 miles away.

Fortunately, Pueblo averages only five tickets sold per day. If it had as much traffic as O'Hare in Chicago, the federal government would go broke.

Even with subsidies, the Wood County Airport in Williamstown is having severe financial problems., and was down to its last $14,000.

Officials at the airport are toying with the idea of getting a liquor license and installing a few video slot machines to subsidize the cost of operations.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Here comes another agency that may seek to become dependent upon bettors to stay alive.

Sometimes, economic activity kept alive by such measures ends up looking like Frankenstein.