by Arika Johnson, PE, MnDOT Aeronautics
Published in Midwest Flyer Magazine June/July 2022 Digital Issue
As everyone knows, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a whirlwind of new experiences for most people, at work and at home. MnDOT Aeronautics is also no stranger to new tasks. Over the past year, the Airport Development Section of Aeronautics has been busy distributing new airport funding that resulted largely from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
To give a little background, MnDOT’s Airport Development section administers state and federal funds for many different types of projects at Minnesota’s public airports. Those projects could be associated with obstruction removal, navaids, a new fuel system or rehab of the pavement at the airport, or any number of other improvements. In the graphics below, you can see the different project types that were funded with state and/or federal funds last fiscal year.
State and federal encumbrances from this past fiscal year, July 2020 through June 2021.
As you can see from the pie graphs, the majority of federal and state funding goes towards pavement projects that improve runways, taxiways, or other paved areas. Each project that requires federal or state funds also requires a written grant that goes through MnDOT’s Airport Development Section. This past year we have seen an increase in the number of grants that were issued. There were 182 grants for 104 airports, which was a 56-percent increase over fiscal year 2020. In addition to the 182 federal and state grants, the CARES Act added an additional 88 grants. The 88 grants from the CARES Act helped distribute over $158 million in federal pandemic relief to airports across Minnesota. Of the $158 million, an approximate $122 million has already been reimbursed to Minnesota airports.
Another big part of the funding from MnDOT’s Airport Development Section is designated for maintenance and operations, often referred to as M&O grants. Over the past five years, we have seen an increase of more than $150,000 to M&O funds for Minnesota public airports. This past state fiscal year alone, $5 million was allocated for airport M&O. Of that amount, $2,434,000 has been reimbursed to Minnesota airports.
Lastly, we can talk about state and federal grants that are reimbursed to Minnesota airports each fiscal year. On average, MnDOT’s Airport Development staff administers more than 400 payments each year for state and federal grants. For fiscal year 2020-2021, 450 payments were distributed from grants. An additional 128 CARES Act payments were made. The amounts of those 578 payments range from $1,000 to over $1 million. The bar chart below shows the total for each fiscal year for state and federal grant payments made since 2012. State funds paid out for grants have been steady over the past few years, but the federal funds have seen an increase.
MnDOT continues to work hard to make sure that each airport receives the state and federal funds for capital improvement projects, M&O expenses, and other airport needs. If you would like to talk to your regional MnDOT Airport Development contact or have questions, please go to the Airport Development page online at
mndot.gov/aero/airportdevelopment/contacts.html.
