US airlines have got the final approval to halt flights at another 75 airports to ease their cash burn.
The Covid-19 pandemic has ravaged travel demand and the insistence on operating near-empty flights at the airports has hit airline finances hard.
The US transportation department said all the airports will still be served by at least one carrier.
It means both Delta Air Lines and United Airlines can both halt flights at 11 airports.
For Delta it means it can end service at airports such as Aspen, Bangor, Maine, Santa Barbara, CA, and Flint, Michigan.
For United it includes Key West, Florida, Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach.
Allegiant Air may halt service at six airports, while JetBlue Alaska Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines are permitted to stop flying to five airports each.
As part of the industry-wide $25 billion government payroll aid program, airlines were forced to maintain minimum service levels but over time successfully lobbied the DOT to be more lenient.
The DOT had allowed service suspensions for some airlines at some airports on a case-by-case basis, and the new ruling likely makes it fairer for all fifteen US airlines affected.
Although airlines are reporting a slight uptick in demand, passenger loadings still remain at just a fraction of normal levels while the industry as a whole is burning through a combined $10 billion a month.
