15 U.S.C. § 9097 — Minimum air service guarantees

(a) The Transportation Secretary^* may, when reasonable and practicable, require an air carrier receiving assistance under this part to maintain scheduled service the Secretary considers necessary to keep serving every point the carrier served before March 1, 2020. (b) The Secretary must consider the air-service needs of small and remote communities and the need for functioning health-care supply chains, including medical devices and supplies, and pharmaceutical supply chains. (c) This authority ends March 1, 2022, and requirements issued under it stop applying after that date. (d) Congress states that implementation should consider (1) communities and airports that lost service through permitted consolidated operations, including smaller airports near larger ones; (2) that the Department of Transportation's common-point airport groupings differ from groupings used by carriers, agencies, and consumer distribution channels; (3) an area's and affected communities' demographic, geographic, economic, and other characteristics; (4) the importance of service throughout the United States to distributing a coronavirus vaccine; and (5) community objections about whether an airport belongs in a consolidated point, including objections about the considerations in (b).