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Across the country, COVID-19 affected a multitude of industries, but perhaps no industry was more impacted than commercial aviation.
Southeast Iowa Regional Airport was no stranger to these losses. Its enplanements, the number of times passengers board the plane, fell by two-thirds, meaning the airport had less than 2,700 enplanements and served 5,000 passengers total, including those who exited planes at the airport, served. Nonetheless, empty planes still flew out of the airport twice a day; they had to. Money-wise, Essential Air Service is still paying the bills, explained Charlie Walsh, chairman of the airport board.
The flights out of the airport are subsidized by the federal government as part of the Essential Air Service, a program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation to subsidize two round-trip fights per day from small airports to medium or large hubs. This meant that even when there were no passengers, the airport still needed to make