Sen. Collins Defends Essential Air Service, Urges ATC Relocation Bonuses

Q&A on Essential Air Service Program

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Q&A on Financial Incentives for Air Traffic Controllers

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Washington, D.C. - At a hearing to review the 2027 budget request for the Department of Transportation, U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, stressed the importance of the Essential Air Service program in Maine to Secretary Sean Duffy and asked the Department to help address the Air Traffic Controller shortage.

Q&A on Essential Air Service Program

Sen. Collins: The Chair mentioned in her opening statement the importance of the Essential Air Service program, and I want to start my first question on that issue. First, let me welcome you, Secretary Duffy, it's good to have you here today with us. The Essential Air Service program is truly a lifeline to rural communities across the country, helping to connect them to national and global transportation networks, as well as to critical services, such as health care.

In Maine, the Essential Air Service program plays a critical role in promoting economic development, expanding access to health care, and also supporting tourism, which is one of our state's largest economic sectors. There are four airports in Maine: Presque Isle, Rockland, Augusta, and Trenton, which serves Hancock County, that would not have any commercial air service, but for this program.

Mr. Secretary, that's why I'm very concerned about the substantial cut in the EAS program that is included in the President's budget. How would you plan to support air service to rural communities if you have that deep a cut in the EAS program?

Sec. Duffy: First, Senator. Thank you for the question. Not surprised that rural America asked me about Essential Air Service. As you know, I also, when I was a member of Congress, had an Essential Air Service airport in my district, and one very close by, and I understand how important Essential Air Service is for communities who normally do not get service but for this program, and I think we talked about this a year ago.

Sen. Collins: We did.

Duffy: I remember. This is asking for the system to be more efficient, and that is the ask, but if you ask about the DOT and this President's commitment to Essential Air Service, you would remember during the shutdown there wasn't necessarily money to continue with the Essential Air Service, and this Administration found resources to maintain service to rural communities, funding Essential Air Service when the government was shut down. So I think that does underscore the commitment to the communities that are served by this great program. This is a budget that does reflect our desire to have efficiencies brought into it, but we do not want to see communities cut off from air travel.

Sen. Collins: That's good to hear, and I hope that you'll work closely with the subcommittee as we compile the bill.

Q&A on Financial Incentives for Air Traffic Controllers

Sen. Collins: Mr. Secretary, I also want to commend you for your leadership in modernizing our nation's airspace system. You talked about replacing old legacy copper wire with fiber, and I know this has been an extremely important priority to you, and it's one that I share, and I commend you for leading the way. The Department's air traffic control system modernization efforts have the potential to enhance safety, something that's important to all of us, while improving the reliability of controller communications, increasing surveillance capabilities, and reducing the individual workload, among many other benefits.

I know that the personnel at the Bangor and Portland Maine airports appreciate the technological improvements and your focus on also addressing staffing shortages. I was very happy to hear you talk about hiring more than 2,000 new controllers. That is absolutely critical. I want to point out to you that the Bangor Airport, in particular, has been assessed to be one of the most understaffed airports, in terms of the tower, in the country, and so I hope that that will be a priority for you. What do you think about the possibility of giving bonuses or some sort of financial incentives to controllers who are willing to relocate or initially locate after they've come out of training in those airports in the country that are most understaffed?

Sec. Duffy: Senator, first of all, I appreciate your support. You've been a great advocate. And by the way, listen, if I could just take a moment. I believe this is an American project, and I don't think there's any disagreement. I think everybody here wants to see us get this job done, and it's not easy. This is not an easy undertaking. And we wanted to do this 20 years ago, 25 years ago. This body had a conversation about NextGen, and given billions of dollars, and you spent the money, but we didn't get the result. And I'm not blaming anybody, but I want to work with this body on the resources that we need, but also keeping you informed, and if we're behind or we're ahead, we will tell you where we're at. I think you're entitled to that. And this body took a leap of faith on us to say this is the time, and these guys can get it done, and we owe that to you.

And I'll continue to keep you with the FAA Administrator up to date on where we're at, and are we on track, on time, are we behind, and if so, why? But this is a broader conversation. Sometimes folks want to go to Bangor, Maine. That's a great place to live. And they don't pay as much. But also, there's an issue and this is maybe a conversation we could more broadly have. If you have to go to Senator Gillibrand's towers, it's more expensive in New York, it's expensive in LA, it's expensive in DC, and our cost of living for the controllers and how much we can pay them to accommodate the cost it actually takes out of their paycheck to reside in these certain communities.

I think that's a conversation we should have together because it's gotten expensive in America. I was just down in Miami, same thing there. It used to be a lower cost location or moderate cost, and now it's gotten to be very, very expensive. So, maybe that's a conversation we could have, that we can get controllers to small airports, but also get them to take on the more expensive, bigger airports and compensate them for the cost with housing and other cost to the family, but thank you, Senator, for your support.

Sen. Collins: I appreciate that, and I do certainly recognize that the cost in New York City is way higher than in Bangor, Maine, perhaps not as much of a difference to Portland, Maine these days, as far as housing is concerned, but my point is, if these larger urban airports have a sufficient number of controllers, despite the fact that the cost of living is higher, it seems to me providing financial incentives for people to go to the woefully understaffed towers, such as in Bangor, would make sense, and I would urge you to consider that.

Duffy: I would be happy to work with you on that, and see what is the root cause of why we don't have enough controllers in Bangor, and we could have that conversation. I'll do some research on it. Thank you, Senator.

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