AASHTO Journal - FAA Issues $20M in Airport Tower Upgrade Funds

The Federal Aviation Administration recently awarded $20 million to 20 airports in 15 states to upgrade existing control towers or build new ones.

[Above photo by the FAA]

Issued via the FAA’s Contract Tower Competitive Grant program, those funds aim to support ongoing efforts to improve safety by upgrading and building control towers in small towns and at regional airports to support critical aviation operations such as commercial passenger flights, cargo flights, emergency services, agricultural aviation, and flight training.

“These upgrades will help ensure traveler safety for decades by providing our controllers better work environments that are also more accessible, secure, and sustainable,” noted Shannetta Griffin, FAA’s associate administrator for airports, in a statement.

She added that, in 2025, additional funding up to $100 million may be available for eligible airports due to expiring fiscal year 2022 funds through the Airport Infrastructure Grant or AIG program.

This is the latest funding disbursement by FAA in 2024.

In October, the FAA issued $970 million to 125 U.S. airports in 46 states and the islands of Guam and Palau; the fourth installment of funding from the Airport Terminal Program or ATP; part of the total $25 billion allocated for airport and air traffic control infrastructure improvements within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA enacted in 2021.

The ATP is a new program focused on making the passenger experience better, improving accessibility for passengers with disabilities, and supporting sustainability. It is also one of three aviation funding programs supported by IIJA; the other two being the AIG program, which provides about $15 billion in total funding over five years with $3 billion available annually, and the Airport Improvement Program or AIP, which receives some $3.3 billion in federal funding each year

In September, the FAA issued $1.9 billion in AIP grants to 519 project in 48 states, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

The agency added that it issued an additional $269 million in fiscal year 2023 Supplemental Discretionary Grants to fund 62 projects at 56 U.S. airports; money aimed at making airports safer and more efficient for passengers as well as for the employees who work behind the scenes to make the nation’s aviation system run as smoothly as possible.

In August, the FAA issued 296 grants via its AIG program worth $566.4 million to help fund airport modernization projects in 47 states.