Friday, August 12, 2011

The Worst Subsidy of the Week: Airplane flights to no-where---Small airlines fly with NO passengers so they can receive Federal subsidies.

File this under "you can't make this up"...I bet the writers over at The Onion are wondering if Congress is trying to challenge them in making up ridiculous stories. Problem is, the stories out of Congress are true...

Read the whole article and see some TEA party hypocrisy to go along with the Establishment (Reps and Dems). I grew up in a VERY small town in a relatively sparse part of northern New Hampshire and I ask the question: WHY, in the 21st century do we suck-up to "rural interests" as if they are sacrosanct and have to travel by horse and buggy to get anywhere? Again, a subsidy that has little merit to the nation as a whole and adds little to the national output. 

Gov't pays for empty flights to rural airports

""On some days, the pilots with Great Lakes Airlines fire up a twin-engine Beechcraft 1900 at the Ely, Nev., airport and depart for Las Vegas without a single passenger on board. And the federal government pays them to do it.

Federal statistics reviewed by The Associated Press show that in 2010, just 227 passengers flew out of Ely while the airline got $1.8 million in subsidies. The travelers paid $70 to $90 for a one-way ticket. The cost to taxpayers for each ticket: $4,107....""
  Associated Press

Are you mad, yet???

No comments:

Post a Comment

View My Stats