WASHINGTON – The face of flying may be changing for small community airports in Maine and all across the country as Congress tries to reach an agreement on the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Senate’s version of the bill passed unanimously in a 94-0 vote recently with provisions proposed by Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, that are designed to help the survival of rural community airports.

According to Snowe’s communications director Elizabeth Wenk, the bill will directly affect 13 of the 16 airports in Maine.

During committee deliberations, Snowe added a measure that would create a National Small Community Air Service Ombudsman.

“I have always believed that adequate, reliable air service in our nation’s rural areas is not simply a luxury or a convenience, it is an imperative,” said Snowe.

The ombudsman’s duties would include soliciting comments from small communities regarding strategies for improving and retaining air service and acting as a liaison between those communities and federal agencies.

Snowe also has proposed creation of a National Commission on Small Community Air Service. This commission would be responsible for examining the challenges faced by small communities in retaining and attracting air service.

The commission would consist of members drawn from the aviation industry, small community airport managers, state and local aviation officials, as well as state and local economic development officials.

The House version of the bill, which passed June 11, had a section dedicated to small community air service that includes a cost-sharing pilot program for airports currently being subsidized by the Essential Air Service programs, or EAS.

The EAS program was developed after the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 and offers subsidies to airlines that serve smaller markets that otherwise would be unable to attain commercial flights. The program currently serves about 100 small communities across the country.

Under the cost-sharing provision, sponsors of airports serving a small community would share the cost of providing air transportation services. The program would be implemented at the request of the Secretary of Transportation.

Although the cost-sharing provision passed in the House, it did not make it onto the Senate’s bill, because of opposition from Snowe and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.

“I remain concerned about the concept of requiring EAS towns – some of which are cash-strapped and economically depressed – from kicking in hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to keep their air service,” said Snowe in a speech on the Senate floor. “For example, if Augusta or Rockland were to be chosen for the cost-sharing pilot program, they would have to come up with over $120,000 annually to retain their air service.”

Another provision passed by the House, to help smaller airports increase their level of passengers is a marketing incentive program.

According to the House bill, each EAS airport can get a grant of up to $50,000 to create a marketing plan to increase the passengers’ participation at its facilities.

At least one-quarter of the funding for the marketing plan is required to come from state or local funds that are neither directly nor indirectly connected to the federal government. A state can raise the money by selling bonds.

If the Secretary of Transportation determines that monthly boarding at these airports has increased by 25 percent or more, a year after the implementation of the marketing program, the local community will be required to contribute only 10 percent to the marketing plan the next year.

If monthly boarding increases by 50 percent or more in a year, then the community will not be required to contribute to the marketing plan at all.

According to the bill passed by the House, the purpose of the incentive program is to reduce subsidy cost, improve and maintain transportation services in small communities and increase the number of passengers in these rural airports. This provision also was approved in the Senate version of the bill.

The bill is headed to a House-Senate conference committee.