“The infrastructure law we successfully approved over opposition from every other Central Texas member is now also successfully marshaling funds right here to Austin to begin making our much-needed airport expansion plans a reality,” Doggett said in a press release.
On July 7, the Biden Administration announced the Federal Aviation Administration will award almost $1 billion to 85 airports across the county through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Airport Terminal Program.
“The general expansion project is to make sure that locally we're making investments in helping our airport expand rapidly right now—to make sure that it's handling and efficiently processing all the passengers that are now going through the Austin airport,” said Kate Stotesbery, Doggett’s deputy chief and communications director.
ABIA will use the $15 million award to fund its Airport Expansion and Development Program, which focuses on expanding and improving the Barbara Jordan Terminal, said Sam Haynes, ABIA's acting public information and marketing manager. Construction for a new baggage handling system for outbound bags and remote busing gates for Gate 13 are expected to begin this summer.
The airport completed its first project under the program, a new TSA security checkpoint, in December. Expansion efforts for TSA Checkpoint 3 and three new west side gates are still in the design phase.
“Austin and Central Texas are undergoing tremendous growth,” Haynes said. “The region as a whole has welcomed more people and businesses since the pandemic, which means more people are flying out of [ABIA] than ever before.”
Expecting to fly out 22 million passengers this year, 2022 has been a record-breaking year for ABIA, Haynes said. With over 2 million passengers, May was reported as the busiest month in the airport’s history, an almost 83% increase in passenger traffic from May 2021.
“The growth has been record-breaking on a continuous basis and has defied our projections and expectations for post-pandemic recovery,” Haynes said. “We originally projected it would take until 2023 or even 2024 to return to prepandemic passenger activity, but now, in 2022, we are surpassing it.”
Haynes said there is no established timeline for when ABIA will receive the $15 million.
