FAA Selects Winners for $110M in Airport Grants

FAA Selects Winners for $110M in New Round of Airport Grants

North Carolina's Charlotte Douglas International Airport received the largest grant, of $43 million, which the airport plans to use to help finance a new 6,400-ft, end-around taxiway.
Photo courtesy Charlotte Douglas International Airport

In the latest installment of funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Federal Aviation Administration has awarded $110 million in grants to 71 airports in 32 states to help finance new and upgraded runways, taxiways and other improvements.

The funding for the awards, announced on March 20, comes from the IIJA's Airport Infrastructure Grant program, one of three aviation programs established by the landmark 2021 legislation. In all, the IIJA provides $15 billion over five years for airport infrastructure.

By far the largest of the 74 grants in the new round of awards is $43 million for Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. The airport plans to use the new grant to help finance a new 6,400-ft, end-around taxiway, which the FAA said would increase safety and reduce delays.

According to background information on the project from the airport, construction began in April 2021 on the taxiway project and is expected to be finished in December.

The project cost is $253.1 million; funding sources are passenger facility charge bonds and a federal grant. The project is part of a $4-billion, multi-year capital improvement program at the airport

Other large grants in the new round include $8.6 million to Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mich., to rebuild its aircraft rescue and fire-fighting facility; and $7.3 million to Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport to improve a service road, rehabilitate an apron and taxiway and make other improvements.

Most of the grants are for infrastructure projects, though some of the awards are for acquiring snow-removal or other types of equipment as well as other non-construction purposes.

In all, the IIJA provides $15 billion over five years for the Airport Infrastructure Grant program. Of that total, the FAA so far has made $9 billion available.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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