Late last week, the Biden administration announced that it will earmark nearly $1 billion—$970 million to be precise—to make major improvements at 114 airports across the United States.
The funds come from an existing $5 billion grant program enabled by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Joe Biden in 2021.
The grants are dedicated to modernizing American airport facilities, a task that most regular U.S. travelers will firmly agree is long overdue.
The managers of our airports must feel that way, too. The federal government received some 600 applications for the financial help. If all those requests had been granted, $14 billion or so would have been disbursed to the country's airports. For now, facilities will have to make do with just 1/14th of that amount as they struggle to meet modern international standards.
One of the biggest payouts will go to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), that congested and ill-planned corner of purgatory that hampers passenger flow at one of the world's busiest cruise ports. Fort Lauderdale will receive $50 million to expand passenger facilities and fully connect its U-shaped configuration of terminals so that transferring passengers won't have to go through security again when changing airlines. (Los Angeles' regrettable LAX, which is blighted by a similarly inadequate U-shaped terminal design, finally managed to complete a similar post-security terminal linkage system last October.)
Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) will get $90 million to improve its archaic, six-decade-old Terminal 3 with properly ADA-compliant restrooms and a TSA checkpoint than can hopefully handle the stress being placed on it daily.
But the grants aren't only going to the big dogs of U.S. airports. There are 112 more airports, small and large, spread across the nation that have also had their renovation prayers answered. The funded projects include modernization efforts in Shreveport, Louisiana (SHV); upgrades at both airports in Phoenix (PHX and IWA); improved circulation and new boarding bridges in Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT); better air conditioning in Corpus Christi, Texas (CRP); and many more urgent projects.
The Federal Aviation Administration website has set up an easy-to-use page where you can learn what goodies are coming to your favorite airports.
Head over to the Airport Terminals Program page and click on the airport code map (pictured above) to find out what got funded.
The money will be augmented by $244 million from the Department of Transportation that will be used to upgrade airside facilities such as runways and taxiways across the country.
