Here's a true story about how a bus in Jackson was killed by nonsensical fear 40 miles away.

The bus is the Michigan Flyer. Since 2006, it has stopped in Jackson on a shuttle route between Lansing and Metro Airport in Wayne County.

Michigan Flyer buses, in my experience, are usually nowhere near full. But airline passengers who use the service seem to like it.

A subsidiary of the Indian Trails bus company, the Michigan Flyer is less well-liked in Lansing. Civic leaders there believe the bus steals business — or makes it “leak” away — from Capital City Airport.

This silly complaint last year crushed the Michigan Flyer’s hopes of landing a $1.5 million federal transportation grant to increase service.

Michigan Flyer intended to use the money to start a second route to Metro Airport on I-96, while also keeping its original route through Jackson.

State and federal officials backed the grant, which looked certain until Capital City Airport and Chamber of Commerce types in Lansing came out against it.

A very good reason, in my view, existed to oppose that grant: Our government will never cut spending if it insists on helping people who can help themselves. Airline passengers can afford to reach airports without federal help.

But that wasn’t the reason Lansing officials opposed Michigan Flyer’s grant. A July editorial in the Lansing State Journal explained their position nicely.

“It was especially unnerving for many civic leaders when a private bus company applied for a federal grant to carry more air passengers out of Lansing,” the paper said.

The editorial called the bus line “a threat” that "undermines" Lansing’s airport.

Faced with such strong local opposition, the grant was rejected. Seven months later, Michigan Flyer decided to go ahead with its I-96 route. Except now it will replace the Jackson route instead of adding to it. The last bus stops in Jackson April 1.

Civic leaders in Lansing must be easily unnerved.

It is ridiculous to suggest airline passengers in towns like Jackson would fly from Lansing but instead we are enticed to Detroit by the pleasures of a $45 bus ride.

Passengers choose airports for price and flight convenience. Period.

Capital City Airport has 15 outgoing flights a day and Metro Airport has hundreds. Lansing flights are usually more expensive and less direct.

Take note, Lansing bigwigs. That is the reason for your “leakage.” Stop blaming a bus that used to help us reach the airport.