FY 2023 Competitive Funding Opportunity: Airport Improvement Program Discretionary Grants

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces the opportunity to apply for an estimated $1.5 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 discretionary grants under the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), per 49 U.S.C. § 47115. The FAA awards these annually appropriated discretionary funds through the FAA’s long-standing iterative, competitive grant process. Prior to the publication of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the FAA identified eligible applicants in its National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) and compiled potentially eligible projects through the 3-year Airports Capital Improvement Plan (ACIP). Both of these processes are described in FAA Order 5090.5, “Formulation of NPIAS and ACIP,” adhering to 49 U.S.C. § 47115, which authorizes discretionary funds. The AIP funds airport capital improvements and rehabilitation projects. All discretionary grant funding is subject to appropriations, statutory requirements, and related program funding availability.

See the link to the FY 2023 NOFO for eligibility information. For AIP purposes, sponsors are broken down into the specific types show in Table 2-1 of the AIP Handbook. Eligible applicant categories include: a public agency owning (or leasing from another government entity) a public-use airport, a private entity owning a public use airport, and an Indian tribe or pueblo owning or leasing a public-use airport. This is not an all-inclusive list – for additional eligibility categories and further details on each eligible applicant category, see AIP Handbook Table 2-1 in the following weblink: https://www.faa.gov/airports/aip/aip_handbook/media/AIP-Handbook-Order-5100-38D-Chg1.pdf Per 49 USC § 47105(b)(2), a sponsor must be proposing a project for a public-use airport included in the current National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS). See this website for further information on NPIAS: https://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/npias/