The United States Essential Air Service (EAS) programme and Europe's imposition of Public Service Obligation (PSO) air services are nationally funded and intended to increase access to remote areas. In 2018, the programmes together, involved subsidy payments in excess of US$590 million. Applying a generalized travel-cost-based methodology, this paper analyses to what extent 264 subsidized air services in 12 countries contribute to the locational accessibility of remote regions. It also assesses the routes' viability in the presence of transport alternatives at nearby airports. The results indicate that the accessibility contributions of subsidized services vary considerably across countries. More than 45 routes are identified for which no measurable accessibility improvements are found. In total, only 15% of all services appear to yield accessibility contributions sufficient to justify the corresponding subsidies. The implications of the findings for future policymaking is discussed.

美国基本航空服务（EAS）计划和欧洲施加的公共服务义务（PSO）航空服务是国家资助的，旨在增加对偏远地区的访问权限。2018年，这些计划共涉及超过5.9亿美元的补贴付款。本文采用基于旅行成本的广义方法，分析了12个国家/地区中264个受补贴的航空服务在多大程度上对偏远地区的位置可达性做出了贡献。它还会评估附近机场是否存在替代运输方式时，该航线的生存能力。结果表明，补贴服务的可访问性贡献因国家而异。发现超过45条路由，其可访问性均未得到改善。总共，所有服务中只有15％似乎产生了足以证明相应补贴合理的无障碍获取费用。讨论了研究结果对未来决策的影响。