FAA says US airports will get US$8 billion in pandemic relief
Airports around the United States will share US$8 billion in federal grants to greatly help them recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a steep drop in air travel and a loss of earnings that airports expect from airlines and passengers.
Almost all of the money will head to big airports with commercial air line service. They will share US$6.5 billion based on the quantity of passenger boardings, plus another US$800 million to provide rent relief to companies that operate concessions such as for example food and shops in terminals.
Airports must keep at least 90 per cent of the workers they had prior to the pandemic to receive one of the grants, that will 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 US$175.7 million for Seattle-Tacoma International, US$115 million for Philadelphia International, US$74.3 million for Daniel K. Inouye International in Honolulu, US$56.2 million for St. Louis Lambert International, and US$50.6 million for Raleigh-Durham International in North Carolina.
There are practically 500 commercial airports in the US, according to an industry group, Airports Council International-North America, and the group projects that they can lose more than US$40 billion from the pandemic by next March.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
