Critics call it nothing but a waste of money. The federal government is paying airlines more than $200 million in public money to fly airplanes that are, many times, nearly empty, to places most of people never need to go.

The idea is to provide commercial airline service to rural parts of Minnesota and the rest of the country. The program is called Essential Air Service.

Jim Haroldson flies out of Hibbing every week.

"I fly all the time and I shop on flights and try to figure out the cheapest way to go for my business," said Haroldson.

A roundtrip ticket to the Twin Cities costs him an average of $437. But that ticket also costs taxpayers $137. That's a total of $572 into the pockets of Delta Airlines. The taxpayer share adds up to $2.9 million a year.

On top of the high fares passengers are paying, the federal government is paying Delta to fly to Hibbing and other small cities and towns across the country.

Delta flies twice a day to Thief River Falls, an airport where the phone sometime rings without anyone there to answer it. The airline is paid $1.3 million for those flights. That amount added to the $2.9 million Delta gets for the Hibbing flights equals up to $4.2 million of taxpayer dollars every year.

"The whole program should be thrown out the window," said Phil Krinkie of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota.

The Taxpayers League of Minnesota suggests many of these so-called essential air service cities are anything but that.

"For 30 years the same subsidy program and getting a diminishing result. Fewer people are using it today that were using it ten years ago," said Krinkie.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS found some planes fly empty to the 159 cities that are a part of the Essential Air Service program. An average of 8 passengers a day fly out of Thief River Falls. Two-thirds of the seats on flights to Hibbing are empty, according to airport officials.

Despite those numbers, the government is spending more taxpayer money to add another daily flight to Hibbing.

"Expanding the service is even more obsurd," said Krinkie.

Congressman Jim Oberstar, whose district includes Hibbing and the Iron Range, came up with the idea for Essential Air Service 30 years ago. He says if the program doesn't work it's an airline problem because of bad schedules.

"It's not a government problem," said Rep. Oberstar. "I'm not just going to sit back and see the people of northeast Minnesota left behind because the airlines are only servicing the metropolitan areas across the country."

A survey done by the Chisholm-Hibbing airport last year showed nearly nine out of 10 people who fly on the Iron Range already drive to metropolitan areas like the Twin Cities to catch their flights anyway.

Oberstar insists Essential Air Service is not more of a convenient air service.

"No it's not at all. that's a false representation," said Rep. Oberstar. "Those who are driving are driving out of frustration with Northwest/Mesaba Airlines."

Delta Airlines refused to discuss how much it profits on those flights. In a statement, Delta says it welcomes the prospect of continuing service under the Essential Air Service program.