Man tries flying from Los Angeles to Boston using only the Essential Air Service and it doesn't quite go to plan

A man tried flying the whole way across the country from Los Angeles to Boston using only the Essential Air Service, and it’s a trip he won’t forget in a hurry.

What looked like a simple coast-to-coast jaunt quickly turned into a marathon of delays, cancellations, and tiny planes.

Travel vlogger Noel Phillips set out to cross the entire country using only America’s government-subsidised Essential Air Service routes, but the system’s quirks and downfalls hit hard the moment he left Los Angeles.

While these little routes are essential, as their name suggests, there are clearly some problems that need ironing out.

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The Essential Air Service causes chaos for this adventurer

The Essential Air Service is a federal program designed to keep remote towns connected by subsidising airlines to operate routes that would otherwise disappear.

These flights often use tiny little airplanes, serve just a small number of passengers, and link small communities to major hubs.

A wall of fog at LAX immediately delayed his first flight by three hours because the small Pilatus PC-12 on the route couldn’t operate in zero visibility.

When he finally got on board and airborne, he hopped from LA to Imperial, then to Phoenix, Arizona, with just one other passenger and a cat on board.

From there, he boarded a Swearingen Metro III to Cortez, Colorado, where there was no Uber, and a fellow passenger ended up driving him to his hotel.

The next morning, another Metro III took him over the Rockies to Denver.

It was then followed by a nearly private Embraer 145 to Watertown, South Dakota, with only two passengers on board and a delicious full snack basket to themselves.

Bad weather, countless cancellations, and a snowy finish

Everything fell apart in Chicago when a winter storm canceled his onward Essential Air Service leg, forcing him onto a regular flight to Washington, DC.

Hours later, the next Essential Air Service plane he was meant to be taking was canceled too, leaving him stranded and forced to improvise.

Determined to finish his journey, he headed to New York and finally rejoined the network on a tiny Cape Air Cessna 402, fighting through a snowstorm into Saranac Lake.

One last Cessna flight got him to Boston, where he ended the trip slightly late, freezing cold, and with a whole new appreciation for how America’s smallest airline routes work in horrendous conditions.

Regardless of weather, this series of little planes is guaranteed to take you on quite the journey if you’re trying to get from Los Angeles to Boston.

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