Columbia Regional Airport to receive millions from CARES Act
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The city has been approved to receive funding through the CARES Act to help pay for the cost of COVID-19 at Columbia Regional Airport.
The funding was determined by a formula that looked at the amount of capital improvement projects funded by the Federal Aviation Administration in the previous year.
"Of course we had a number of infrastructure projects take place over at COU, so our formula award was roughly $18.7 million," said city spokesman Steve Sapp.
According to the FAA, more than 3,000 airports are eligible for funding from the CARES Act. Many have already been awarded money.
The funding is broken up into two parts, operations and development.
The city has been awarded $8 million for operations. The airport will get $2 million, the equivalent of the airport's annual operating budget, each year for four years.
Operations include things like maintenance, utilities and pay for employees.
The money comes in the form of a reimbursement grant, meaning the city will have to pay for operations and then submit forms to be reimbursed for the cost.
"I don't know if that occurs on an annual basis, semi-annual, or monthly but it is a reimbursement grant," Sapp said.
The city is currently having discussions with the FAA about how it could use the $10.7 million that would be left. Sapp said it is not clear at this time what the money would go toward, but it could include things like the new terminal.
Sapp said the funding from the CARES Act will help with the transition when things begin to return to normal.
"I think what this really does for airports across the country is it positions them to be able to meet that demand once the country starts to come out of the restrictions that they're in," Sapp said.
"Had we not received moneys from the CARES Act we would certainly be making some very hard decisions right now as to probably, you know, what we were going to give up at the airport," Sapp said.
