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Financing Airport Improvements

The federal Airport Improvement Program (AIP) has been providing federal grants for airport development and planning since the passage of the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982 (P.L. 97-248). AIP funding is usually spent on projects that support aircraft operations such as runways, taxiways, aprons, noise abatement, land purchase, and safety or emergency equipment. The funds obligated for AIP are drawn from the airport and airway trust fund, which is supported by a variety of user fees and fuel taxes. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-254) provided annual AIP funding of $3.35 billion from the airport and airway trust fund for five years from FY2019 to FY2023. The act left the basic structure of AIP unchanged, but authorized supplemental annual funding of over $1 billion from the general fund to the AIP discretionary funds, starting with $1.02 billion in FY2019, and required at least 50% of the additional discretionary funds to be available to nonhub and small hub airports. The act included a provision permitting eligible projects at small airports (including those in the State Block Grant Program) to receive a 95% federal share of project costs (otherwise capped at 90%), if such projects are determined to be successive phases of a multiphase construction project that received a grant in FY2011. The 2018 reauthorization expanded the number of states that could participate in the State Block Grant Program from 10 to 20 and also expanded the existing airport privatization pilot program (now renamed the Airport Investment Partnership Program) to include more than 10 airports. The law included a provision that forbids states or local governments from levying or collecting taxes on a business at an airport that “is not generally imposed on sales or services by that State, political subdivision, or authority unless wholly utilized for airport or aeronautical purposes.” The airport improvement issues Congress generally faces in the context of FAA reauthorization include the following: (1) Should airport development funding be increased or decreased? (2) Should the $4.50 ceiling on passenger facility charges (PFCs) be eliminated, raised, or kept as it is? (3) Could AIP be restructured to address congestion at the busiest U.S. airports, or should a large share of AIP resources continue to go to noncommercial airports that lack other sources of funding? (4) Should Congress set tighter limits on the purposes for which AIP and PFC funds may be spent? This report provides an overview of airport improvement financing, with emphasis on AIP and the related passenger facility charges. It also discusses some ongoing airport issues that are likely to be included in a future FAA reauthorization debate.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 32p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01705723
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: R43327
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: May 23 2019 4:29PM