US says subsidies for rural airline service to expire as soon as Sunday

Essential Air Service program, popular with Republican lawmakers, faces funding cut because of US shutdown

The Trump administration has said that funds from a US government program that subsidizes commercial air service to rural airports are set to expire as soon as Sunday because of the government shutdown.

The US transportation department said the subsidies in the Essential Air Service program are expected to expire as soon as Sunday after the department transferred unrelated funding from the Federal Aviation Administration as an advance.

“Every state across the country will be impacted,” the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said at a press conference, noting the service had bipartisan support. “We don’t have the money for that program moving forward.”