The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently awarded hundreds of airports $8 billion in grants through the Airport Rescue Grants program created in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Funding will be used to help U.S. airports recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by keeping workers employed and construction projects going.
Grant recipients include Yeager Airport in Charlestown, W.Va., $3.2 million; Gulfport-Biloxi International, $4.9 million; Portland International Jetport in Portland, Maine, $10.4 million; Ted Stevens Anchorage International, $44.4 million; Raleigh-Durham International, $50.6 million; St. Louis Lambert International, $56.2 million; Portland International, $72 million, Daniel K Inouye International in Honolulu, $74.3 million; Philadelphia International, $115 million; and Seattle-Tacoma International, $175.7 million.
Primary commercial service airports will share approximately $6.5 billion under the program based on the number of annual boardings. These airports will also share $800 million to provide relief to in-terminal airport concessions from rent and minimum annual guarantees. The $800 million will be divided between relief to large airport concessions, $160 million, and small concessions, $640 million.
Nonprimary commercial service and general aviation airports will share $100 million based on their airport category.
A total of $8 billion will be used to pay an airport’s cost-share portion on grants through the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program as well as the supplemental discretionary grants.