Veterans Airport Says New American Airlines Service Safe From Proposed Federal Cuts

Local officials watching Essential Air Service funding fight in Washington

By Verna Slate, Williamson County Bureau

MARION, Ill. — A proposed federal budget that would cut funding for the Essential Air Service program is being watched closely by local airport officials, but it isn't expected to touch the new American Airlines service at Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois, according to the Southern Illinoisan.

Veterans Airport has spent the last several years building up its commercial offerings, and the arrival of American Airlines service was a milestone for a county still working to diversify beyond coal and retail. Officials' read, for now, is that the new route isn't the type of service the proposed cuts would target.

Watch this space. Budget fights in Washington have a way of changing shape before they land, and a rural airport's flight schedule is exactly the kind of thing that gets rewritten in the fine print.

• filed from the courthouse steps, where the ghosts take good notes.

— Compiled from reporting by the Southern Illinoisan.

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