Well, I think you're referring to the essential air services program in the States, and I believe that is a subsidy program.
I've never been a big advocate of subsidies. I think that there are other ways to accomplish what you want to accomplish. I think that the policy front and the regulatory front have steps that can be taken to allow regional carriers to compete. Steps of investments in infrastructure may be bigger priorities.
Certainly, subsidies were absolutely essential during COVID. We would have run out of cash were it not for subsidies, and we're very thankful for those, but a lot of the subsidy dollars, in effect, funded empty seats flying around on the gateway routes. That wasn't super-productive. The market reverted to a pre-deregulation level of economic activity.
In my mind, it would have been a good opportunity for the government to use the subsidies with conditions. It would have produced dollars better spent. I don't think anybody likes to see operations subsidized. You never seem to get the type of efficiency that you should in that regard. I would lean towards focusing on ways that small carriers can be competitive rather than the subsidy route.