The FAA will award $20 million from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to 29 airports in small towns to repair, improve, modernize, replace, or relocate airport-owned air traffic control towers.
“Airports aren’t just travel hubs, they are important job centers and economic engines — especially in smaller communities,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We’re proud to deliver these investments, which will help us improve safety at airports and support local economies for decades to come.”
Airports receiving grants include:
- $1.5 million to Columbus Municipal Airport (KBAK) in Indiana: For construction of a new Airport Traffic Control Tower to improve the line of sight and better serve one of the fastest growing general aviation airports in the state of Indiana.
- $860,000 to Joplin Regional Airport (KJLN) in Missouri: To replace the airport’s aging airfield lighting control and monitoring system, enhancing safety to improve tower operations. In addition, it replaces aging tower equipment.
- $1.1 million to Tyler Pounds Regional Airport (KTYR) in Texas: For the planning, environmental, and preliminary design to relocate the existing 75-year-old tower, which has line of sight issues due to the extension of the new primary runway.
Wondering if your airport is getting an upgrade? A full list of all the grants being awarded is available on the FAA website.
How does one get grants for tie downs and hangars? That’s the major shortage near me.
Spot on Kent! And there is a controller shortage also…
We at KYKM were earmarked 2.3 million for our AIP. We will now have a taxi lane in place of 20 hangers that are to be demolished. And not one investor interested in building hangers to rent. That’s progress in the present times. Controlled by a city council that has no pilots or aeronautical experience at all, and an airport director that only cares about the government money earmarked for the project.
Sounds about right. Every airport in the country could fill three times the current hangar space on just the announcement, but airports are run by mid-level administrators averse to sense and lacking any development experience at all. Shame.
Our nation is $31T in debt. Biden has no money to give away, only a greater debt burden we all carry today, the reason inflation is at a 40 year high. Do all these airports really need a control tower? Perhaps a better solution would have been to eliminate the towers altogether. Why must government always grow? If these were all private airports, towers would only be built if they served a real purpose, and paid for themselves.