Cape Air plans to continue offering flights out of Adirondack Regional Airport, even if its federal subsidy expires this weekend if the government shutdown continues. (Enterprise photo — Grace McIntyre)

LAKE CLEAR — The federal subsidies for Cape Air flights in and out of Adirondack Regional Airport were set to run out over the weekend if the now-10-day government shutdown continued.

Cape Air was planning to continue its flights even without the subsidy, operating at a loss — at least in the short-term — banking on the potential that those subsidies would be paid retroactively after the shutdown ends.

But, though the shutdown is still ongoing as of Thursday evening, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced on Wednesday night that it had found more money to continue the subsidies through at least Nov. 2.

The town-owned SLK airport is part of the Essential Air Service network — a DOT program that subsidizes flights for around 170 rural airports in the U.S.

The DOT contracts with Cape Air for 21 round-trip flights a week — 14 to Boston and seven to JFK in New York City — with an annual subsidy of $2,794,783. This accounts for an average subsidy of $2,559 per flight.

Because of the shutdown, the DOT does not have access to the money Congress set aside for the EAS program. The department has been spending down its other source of revenue for the program — overflight fees collected by the Federal Aviation Administration — and these fees come in with inconsistent numbers each month.

The program funding would have run out on Sunday. The subsidy would have ended on Monday.

The DOT was relieving EAS carriers of their obligations to provide flight service. But after the notice on Wednesday, those obligations are back on.

“The Department has been able to secure additional budgetary resources to maintain program operations longer than expected,” the notice on Wednesday said.

The DOT did not specify where the new money came from.

“I have no idea where it came from,” SLK Airport Manager Corey Hurwitch said on Thursday. “We’ll take it and not question it.”

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TSA, air traffic control working without pay

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Hurwitch said Transportation Security Administration and Air Traffic Control staff are also currently working without pay. There is no ATC tower at SLK, but he said some private planes use the “Boston Center” ATC facility in Nashua, New Hampshire. All planes use that center when they need to fly on instruments — when visible flight is not possible due to weather.

Currently, the Boston Center facility is facing staffing shortages, according to the FAA.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy estimated that ATC staffing levels have dropped 50% in some places.

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Cape Air plans

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Hurwitch said on Wednesday afternoon — when the subsidies were still projected to run out on Sunday — that Cape Air had told him they planned to continue their operations as normal at SLK, so customers and airport staff would essentially see no difference. Though that pledge is not needed anymore — at least for the next month — Hurwitch was still glad Cape Air chose to do this.

“It matters because it shows their commitment to serving our community and serving their passengers, and that they’re maintaining their reliability,” Hurwitch said. “But it’s nice to not have to rely on them risking their subsidy.”

If Cape Air had done this, there was a potential the subsidies for the flights during the extended shutdown would be paid back, but the DOT told air carriers they were continuing to offer flights “at their own risk.”

Even if the flights had been subsidized retroactively, Hurwitch said airlines cannot run unsubsidized flights indefinitely. If the shutdown continued too long, he said Cape Air may have needed to change its decision.

According to data from the DOT, Cape Air has had 9,080 passengers so far in 2025 — an average of 14.5 enplanements per day.

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A decision

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Locals are also currently weighing in on which airline they’d like to see contract for EAS flights out of SLK. Cape Air has proposed a renewal, but this year there are also three other companies vying for the contract — more potential companies than the airport has seen in a long time.

Ultimately, the DOT makes the decision on which airline gets the contract. But the public and the town can file comments for the DOT to take into consideration.

The town council discussed its recommendation to the DOT at a board meeting Thursday night.

To read more about this process and the four companies, go to tinyurl.com/34uu4x25.

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The shutdown

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The current shutdown started on Oct. 1, is the first in six years and has no clear end in sight.

Republicans and Democrats have competing funding bills and neither have been able to garner the 60 votes needed in the Senate. The Senate voted for the sixth time on Wednesday morning and could not reach a deal.

Republicans want to pass a “continuing resolution” which would fund the government through Nov. 21.

Democrats are voting against the resolution because Affordable Care Act tax credits, which subsidize health insurance, expire at the end of the year. They want a permanent extension to the subsidies.

Republicans want to split the tax credit discussion from the funding resolution and work on them separately. Democrats say, with open enrollment for insurance starting in less than a month, action needs to be taken now — not just before the end of the year.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Congress expanded the eligibility for these tax credits to include people earning up to more than four times the federal poverty level. Four times the federal poverty level is $62,600 for a single-person household and $106,600 for a family of three.

If these subsidies are not renewed by the end of the year, the people receiving them could see their monthly or annual insurance premium payments rise severely.

Insurance commissioners across the country feel Congress was overlooking the deadline up until just recently.