Airports benefitting from economic stimulus

— -- Akron-Canton Airport, one of the fastest-growing airports in the country, wants to redesign its entrance road to ease traffic and add a curbside lane for taxis and other shuttles.

The Ohio airport has conducted design and other preliminary work for the $7.5 million project, which includes replacing aging sewer and storm-water lines.

"We can begin this project this season if it's funded," says Kristie VanAuken, the airport's senior vice president for marketing. "We're ready to go."

The airport may get its wish. President Obama last week signed the $787 billion economic stimulus program that will inject about $1.1 billion into Airport Improvement Program, or AIP, grants that the Federal Aviation Administration doles out to airports each year for such upgrades.

"It's an additional billion dollars. That's tens of thousands of jobs," says Todd Hauptli of the American Association of Airport Executives of the infusion of airport construction dollars. "We believe airports could have spent even more money than Congress made available, but it's a significant increase in infrastructure investment."

That isn't all the nation's airports, which handle about 4 million travelers daily, get from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

There's $1 billion to allow some airports to upgrade security checkpoints and install a new system for detecting explosives in checked luggage.

The act also encourages a longer-term investment in U.S. airports by providing high-income taxpayers federal income tax breaks to buy airport revenue bonds.

Not as much as needed

The infusion of construction money isn't as much as airports want or need. But it represents 30% of the $3.5 billion that the FAA grants each year to airports for construction projects that enhance safety, security, capacity and environmental concerns.

The new dollars are for projects that are "shovel-ready" and calls for the FAA to distribute half the money within 120 days and the rest within a year.

The stimulus package fell short of the industry's goal of getting a minimum of $3 billion, which the House proposed in its version of the bill. And it's far short of financing what airports say they need.