JACK BERGMAN

IRON MOUNTAIN — The U.S. House on Thursday approved a bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration for five years, turning back an amendment that would have ended Essential Air Service for rural airports.

The legislation passed in a bipartisan 351-69 vote and now goes to the Senate, which is considering its own bill. Differences must be settled by Sept. 30 when the current FAA authorization terminates, The Hill reported.

An amendment to strike authorization for EAS — introduced by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif. — was defeated 386-49.

U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, spoke on the House floor Wednesday in opposition to McClintock’s amendment, noting seven of the nine EAS-eligible airports in Michigan are in his district.

“I have worked to educate my colleagues on the importance of EAS to rural communities like ours and thankfully the amendment was defeated,” he said.

The FAA provides EAS subsidies to make flights available in communities that airlines otherwise would not serve. At Dickinson County’s Ford Airport in Kingsford, SkyWest Airlines provides daily flights to Minneapolis and Detroit under an EAS contract that provides an annual subsidy of up to $3.87 million. The airport is popular, reporting more than 20,000 boardings each year.

SkyWest’s current three-year contract expires Jan. 31. Operating under the Delta brand, it has been Ford Airport’s EAS carrier since 2012.

There are about 175 EAS airports in the U.S., including about 60 in Alaska. An airport must have a per-passenger subsidy of less than $200 — unless the community is more than 210 miles from the nearest large or medium hub airport. An average of 10 or more enplanements per day is required as well.

EAS is funded through a combination of discretionary funding and overflight fees, which are collected by the FAA from foreign aircraft traveling over U.S. airspace without taking off or landing in the U.S. Total subsidies now reach about $390 million annually.

The House legislation authorizes approximately $103 billion for the FAA over the next five years, while the Senate has looked to authorize about $107 billion, according to Politico.