Southern Airways to maintain Essential Air Service routes despite federal shutdown

PITTSBURGH — Southern Airways, the airline that serves three Pennsylvania airports from Pittsburgh International Airport said it will continue to fly its Essential Air Service routes even if the funding for the routes gets shut off Monday due to the ongoing federal shutdown.

The airline serves Dubois, Bradford and Lancaster airports, connecting to Pittsburgh on nine-passenger single-engine Cessna 208 aircraft several times a day. The airline, part of Surf Air Mobility (NYSE: SRFM), receives subsidies through the EAS program to allow it to provide the service to rural airports.

But EAS funding is set to expire Sunday if the partial government shutdown continues, another side of the impact to the airline industry that has led to cancellations and delays from coast to coast. That would cost the airlines serving the EAS markets a share of the millions of dollars in funding they receive every year to provide the flights.