 |
Return to Contents |
Each primary airport apportionment is based upon the number of passenger boardings at the airport. If full funding is appropriated, the minimum amount apportioned to primary airports is $500,000, and the maximum is $22,000,000. These funds are calculated as follows:
2.5 percent of AIP is apportioned to each cargo service airport in the same proportion as its proportion of landed cargo weight to the total landed cargo weight at all qualifying airports. No cargo service airport is entitled to more than 8 percent of the total amount apportioned to all cargo service airports.
A total of 18.5 percent of the annual amount made available for obligation is apportioned for use at general aviation and reliever airports within the States and insular areas. Of this 18.5 percent, 99.34 percent is apportioned for airports within the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, while the remaining 0.66 percent is apportioned for airports in the insular areas (Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands).
Funds are apportioned for certain Alaskan airports to ensure that at least the amount they were apportioned in FY 1980 under previous grant-in-aid legislation is made available to airports in Alaska. This requirement provides approximately $10.5 million for Alaskan airports in per year.
Large and Medium Hub airports that collect a PFC generally forego 50 percent of their apportionments. 75 percent of the withheld funds constitute the Small Airport Fund. This fund is divided between nonhub airports (2/3) and noncommercial service airports (1/3), and allocated on a discretionary basis.
31 percent of the discretionary funds is reserved for noise compatibility planning and implementing noise compatibility programs under Section 47501 et seq. of Title 49 U.S.C. (formerly the Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Act of 1979).
4 percent of the discretionary funds is reserved for the Military Airport Program.
25 percent of the funds not apportioned to PFC-collecting Large and Medium Hub airports are added to the discretionary fund, of which 50 percent must be spent on Small Hub airports.
Of the remaining discretionary funds, 75 percent is to be used for preserving and enhancing capacity, safety, security, and carrying out noise compatibility planning and programs (C/S/S/N) at primary and reliever airports. The other 25 percent may be used for any eligible project at any airport.
Congress specified that the discretionary fund shall not be less than $148 million plus the total discretionary amount required to carry out letters of intent issued before January 1, 1996. If less than this amount remains, all apportionments (except that for Alaska supplemental funds) and set-asides (i.e., noise, MAP, etc.) are to be reduced by the same percentage to ensure that this minimum remain. For fiscal year 1997, the amount of LOI discretionary funds is approximately $152 million.