FAA FUNDING

 

Earlier this month, I attended the FAA Southwest Region's annual conference in Fort Worth. In between breakout sessions, the group heard from FAA officials from both the regional Fort Worth office and Washington DC.

 

During a presentation from Elliott Black, the Director of Airport Policy, we learned that through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019, an additional supplemental discretionary amount of $500M has been made available for airport improvement projects. (If you caught our May newsletter, then you learned from Jim's article that our Taxiway Alpha and Charlie reconstruction project was not selected for funding with the 2018 $1B supplemental grant.)

 

The Act outlines specific rules for the awarding of these funds, however, they will continue to focus on smaller airports and will be available until September 30, 2021.

 

Over $11B worth of projects fought for the initial $1B in 2018. Because of this, we know competition will be steep for this $500M. We're continuing our conversations with TxDOT and FAA and have heard from both that they recognize the importance of this project. As usual, we'll keep everyone updated as we learn more.

 

In the meantime, last Tuesday, Council approved the grant match for the FAA-funded hangar that will be developed near the airport entrance in what we call the Kilo Development Area, or KDA. We anticipate a pre-construction meeting to be held in the coming weeks and dirt to turn before the end of summer so be on the lookout!

 

Happy Flying,

Cassidy Berenato

Director of Marketing and Business Development