Created at a time when airfares in Wyoming were the 5th-highest in the nation, ASEP proved to be an effective amplifier for airline use and revenues over the following decade. With $21 million in spending between 2004 and 2015, ASEP helped drive $370 million in visitor spending and nearly $31 million in new tax revenues, according to a 2016 analysis commissioned by WYDOT, resulting in roughly $523 million of economic impact during that time.

While most of the economic benefit was seen in Jackson, the program also improved passenger counts at airports across the state. According to the analysis, airports like Cody and Gillette experienced passenger increases between 31 percent and 62 percent in subsidized years compared with non-subsidized ones.

But over the past several years, various factors outside of Wyoming’s control have made that fund impractical to meet the needs of the state, as the mixture of a lack of qualified pilots, national airline consolidation and small aircraft retirements have made the cost of regional air travel prohibitively expensive.