Airport Check-in: Pittsburgh first to get stimulus money

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Pittsburgh International

Pittsburgh International says it will be the first airport to receive infrastructure project funding from President Obama's stimulus package.

"This funding will most certainly increase jobs," said Glenn Mahone, chairman of Allegheny County Airport Authority, which runs the airport.

The airport will spend its $10 million grant to repave and improve lighting on a crosswind runway, a project that will begin this summer and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010.

Obama's stimulus program added $1.1 billion to the Federal Aviation Administration's Airport Improvement Program funds, which currently total about $3.5 billion a year. The AIP grants are given to airports for safety, capacity and environmental projects.

Miami International

Miami International has installed flight information display monitors at nearby hotels. The monitors are available in the lobby of Hilton Miami Airport, Wyndham Miami Airport Hotel and the on-airport MIA Hotel. Hotel Sofitel Miami will add it later this year. The system's real-time flight information is also available on in-room TVs.

Sacramento International

Sacramento International's plans to build a 184-room hotel that connects to a new central terminal building have been scrapped because it can't find sufficient financing.

It may still build an on-airport hotel in the future, either as a stand-alone structure, on top of a parking garage or as part of a new business park. The new terminal, which will replace the aging Terminal B, is scheduled to open in 2012.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta

A federal appeals court has upheld a local law that bans people from bringing firearms to the world's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.

A local group, GeorgiaCarry, sued the city of Atlanta and Hartsfield for banning guns in all areas of the airport.

Hartsfield specifically banned firearms after Georgia passed a law last summer that allows people with firearm licenses to bring concealed weapons onto public transportation, in state parks and in certain restaurants. The airport says it falls under the public gathering exception found in the state law.