The Federal Aviation Administration recently awarded more than $479 million in additional infrastructure grants to support 123 projects at airports across all 50 states, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico.
[Above photo via Boston Logan International Airport]
The agency noted in a statement that those grants are in addition to the more than $3.1 billion in Airport Improvement Program or AIP grants awarded during fiscal year 2021.
Those $479 million in grants are from $8 billion set aside in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed in March that, among other things, covers the usual local-match funding requirement for such projects, FAA added.
Several state department of transportation studies – including ones from Georgia, Wyoming, and Alaska – show that airports function as significant “economic engines” as well as key mobility hubs.
Yet airports are also suffering long-term fiscal losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent report by the trade association Airports Council International–North America indicates U.S. airports will lose at least $17 billion between April 2021 and March 2022 due of the prolonged decline in commercial aviation traffic resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those losses are in addition to the $23 billion U.S. airports reportedly lost between March 2020 and March 2021, the group added.
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