{"id":5921,"date":"2011-08-12T15:56:20","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T19:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=5921"},"modified":"2011-08-12T15:56:37","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T19:56:37","slug":"u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Gov&#8217;t pays for empty flights to rural airports (That&#8217;s your money they&#8217;re wasting!)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By KEVIN BEGOS and ADRIAN SAINZ<br \/>\nAssociated Press<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"float: left\" src=\"https:\/\/photos3.fotosearch.com\/bthumb\/FSD\/FSD355\/x19659895.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"170\" height=\"113\" \/>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Ely is one of 153 rural communities where airlines get subsidies through the $200 million Essential Air Service program, and one of 13 that critics say should be eliminated from it. Some call the spending a boondoggle, but others see it as a critical financial lifeline to ensure economic stability in rural areas.<\/p>\n<p>Read More: http:\/\/hosted.ap.org\/dynamic\/stories\/U\/US_AVIATION_SHUTDOWN_RURAL_SUBSIDIES?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&amp;CTIME=2011-08-11-21-42-37<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By KEVIN BEGOS and ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press 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&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":403,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[352,7,223,1121,885,1680,1498,450],"tags":[2215],"class_list":["post-5921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airlines","category-america","category-economy","category-failed-policies","category-government-waste","category-injustice","category-insanity","category-politics","tag-government-subsidies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>U.S. Gov&#039;t pays for empty flights to rural airports (That&#039;s your money they&#039;re wasting!) - Watchwoman on the Wall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. Gov&#039;t pays for empty flights to rural airports (That&#039;s your money they&#039;re wasting!) - Watchwoman on the Wall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By KEVIN BEGOS and ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press 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&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Watchwoman on the Wall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-12T19:56:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-12T19:56:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/photos3.fotosearch.com\/bthumb\/FSD\/FSD355\/x19659895.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Donna Calvin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"U.S. Gov't pays for empty flights to rural airports (That's your money they're wasting!) - Watchwoman on the Wall","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"U.S. Gov't pays for empty flights to rural airports (That's your money they're wasting!) - Watchwoman on the Wall","og_description":"By KEVIN BEGOS and ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press 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&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html","og_site_name":"Watchwoman on the Wall","article_published_time":"2011-08-12T19:56:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-12T19:56:37+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/photos3.fotosearch.com\/bthumb\/FSD\/FSD355\/x19659895.jpg"}],"author":"Donna Calvin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html","name":"U.S. Gov't pays for empty flights to rural airports (That's your money they're wasting!) - Watchwoman on the Wall","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/photos3.fotosearch.com\/bthumb\/FSD\/FSD355\/x19659895.jpg","datePublished":"2011-08-12T19:56:20+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-12T19:56:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#\/schema\/person\/1470e1ef6765f8a27f970307b0835df1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/photos3.fotosearch.com\/bthumb\/FSD\/FSD355\/x19659895.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/photos3.fotosearch.com\/bthumb\/FSD\/FSD355\/x19659895.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/08\/u-s-govt-pays-for-empty-flights-to-rural-airports-thats-your-money-theyre-wasting.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"U.S. Gov&#8217;t pays for empty flights to rural airports (That&#8217;s your money they&#8217;re wasting!)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/","name":"Watchwoman on the Wall","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Donna Calvin","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#\/schema\/person\/1470e1ef6765f8a27f970307b0835df1","name":"Donna Calvin","description":"In sixth grade my teacher told us that we were going to be the first generation to see the year 2000 and all things would be different. He continued that God wasn't important, wasn't real, and our parents just used God to impose restrictions on us because they were inadequate to parent effectively. I knew then I was going to be involved in a war and that I would have to be in Jesus Christ's Army. Even then, I knew the United States of America would cease to exist without the vast majority of its citizens voluntarily submitting to the Perfect and Good Laws of the Holy Bible. I am a woman who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. I am tired of seeing our LORD denigrated from the school house to the White House. I search the Internet for items that ought to serve as a warning to Americans and Christians all through America, but the nation seems to be sleeping. Wake up America! You are losing your freedoms, your children and your country. Wake up and help stop it!","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/author\/dcalvin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/403"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5921"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5926,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5921\/revisions\/5926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}