Federally subsidized flights out of Denver International Airport, including to places like Pueblo, Alamosa and Cortez, remain cleared for takeoff during the government shutdown .

For now.

Funding for essential air service was set to lapse Sunday . But U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy last week announced that his agency found $41 million to keep the program in the air through at least early November.

That’s big news for DIA, which has the largest number of federally subsidized essential air service routes of anywhere in the nation, according to the airport. There were nearly 30 EAS routes offered out of Denver late last year.

EAS was created by Congress as a way to ensure commercial flights still served small and rural communities after airline deregulation happened in 1978

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