June 23, 2021

FAA Says U.S. Airports Will Get $8B in Pandemic Relief

Most of the money will go to big airports with commercial airline service.

Airports around the country will share $8 billion in federal grants to help them recover from the pandemic, which caused a steep drop in air travel and a loss of revenue that airports expect from airlines and passengers.

Most of the money will go to big airports with commercial airline service. They will share $6.5 billion based on the number of passenger boardings, plus another $800 million to offer rent relief to companies that operate concessions, such as food and retail outlets in terminals.

Airports must keep at least 90 percent of the workers they had before the pandemic in order to receive one of the grants, which will be handled by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Congress approved the money as part of a pandemic-relief measure that President Joe Biden signed in March. The Biden administration said the grants would protect airport jobs and construction projects as travel recovers.

The FAA said several hundred airports will get grant money, including $175.7 million for Seattle-Tacoma International, $115 million for Philadelphia International, $74.3 million for Daniel K. Inouye International in Honolulu, $56.2 million for St. Louis Lambert International and $50.6 million for Raleigh-Durham International in North Carolina.

There are nearly 500 commercial airports in the United States, according to an industry group, Airports Council International-North America, which projects that the facilities will lose more than $40 billion from the pandemic by next March.

Copyright 2021 Northstar Travel Media LLC. All rights reserved. From https://www.meetings-conventions.com. By The Associated Press.

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