The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved a subsidized plan that will provide faster and larger planes for service between Boston and the Northern Maine Regional Airport in Presque Isle.

The agreement, announced Friday, which Maine’s congressional delegation supported in letters last month to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, will restore U.S. Airways Express service to northern Maine.

“We are very pleased that the Department of Transportation has agreed to our request to improve air service to Presque Isle using support from the Essential Air Service program,” U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. John Baldacci said in a prepared statement. “The community is working to expand air service options, and the introduction of larger planes and better connecting service will substantially improve service for the people of Aroostook County.”

Under the plan approved Friday, air service between Boston and Presque Isle will be provided by Colgan Air, operating as U.S. Airways Express. Service will be provided using the airline’s Saab 34-seat aircraft, which operate at higher speeds with greater comfort than smaller planes. The service will include three daily, round-trip flights on weekdays, and four round-trip flights on weekends.

Currently, service is provided by CommutAir – operating as Continental Express – using 19-seat Beechcraft 1500 aircraft.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Colgan, based in Virginia, will receive a $5 million federal subsidy over this year and next, also under the Essential Air Service program for its maintenance service to airports in Owls Head, Trenton and Augusta.

Snowe, Collins and Baldacci noted the new air service, expected to become effective in the next few months, will provide travelers with a much broader range of options once they arrive in Boston.

U.S. Airways serves eight major East Coast markets with 74 daily nonstop flights from Boston, including its hub cities of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Charlotte. Travelers also can connect to direct jet service to Baltimore, Miami, New York/La Guardia, Tampa, and Washington’s Reagan National Airport.

By contrast, travelers have to connect to Continental’s Newark hub in order to link with that airlines network.