PASCO — A $5.6 million boost from the Federal Aviation Administration will help the Tri-Cities Airport get ready to expand some day.
The grant is being awarded through the American Rescue Plan of 2021 that became law in March.
Airport Director Buck Taft told the Herald that the airport administration will use the money to pay down debts over the next four years. That’s the FAA’s deadline for the money to be spent.
“We are trying to be good stewards of the money, and using it toward debt is the most advantageous way of doing that,” he said.
The Pasco airport received the third-largest allotment out of 57 airports in the state that will be given grants. Overall, $8 billion is being distributed to airports across the U.S. to help offset losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will get more than $175 million and the Spokane airport will received $17 million.
The neighboring Yakima Air Terminal/McAllister Field will get $1.4 million and Walla Walla airport also will receive $1.3 million.
Capital projects
Taft said that using the money strictly toward paying down debt is the best way to meet long-term goals.
The FAA is allowing the money to be used on operational expenses, debt service payments, costs related to combating the spread of COVID-19 or toward rent relief for vendors and retail stores that operate inside the terminal.
“What this does is free up dollars later for capital projects” Taft said. “In five to eight years, there will be a lot of changes.”
During the past year, all capital projects were put on hold because of the pandemic and the staggering losses when people weren’t traveling.
At the height of the pandemic shutdown in April 2020, fewer than 60 people a day were catching flights out of Tri-Cities. Just a couple of months before that, there were more than 34,000 boardings in Pasco.
Travel is starting to catch up, Taft said. But he added that until international travel opens completely and the pandemic is completely over — the industry can’t fully recover.
Revenue losses
The $5.6 million grant will help offset the loss of revenue that comes from user fees like parking and the percentage of sales the airport gets from rental cars.
More money each fiscal year will be able to be set aside to save up toward bigger projects rather than having to put that toward debt payments.
The Port of Pasco’s capital budget for the airport this fiscal year was dropped from $2.3 million to $300,000.
“We will have a discussion on what we can plan for our capital projects for the next budget, but we may or may not proceed,” Taft said.
While an increase in population isn’t immediately reflected in a larger number of passengers, a terminal expansion is a given with the large increase in population in the Mid-Columbia.
“We look at the big projects — that big ticket items that we know will happen,” he said. “We know that within 10 years we will have a terminal expansion and we also will need a new maintenance shop to store and protect our snow removal equipment.”
Taft remains cautiously optimistic about recovery but said he has to remain flexible on what plans that can move forward.
To offset some losses, Taft said there will be a large marketing effort to encourage people to fly local to places like Seattle instead of driving.
“The cost savings of catching a flight out of Seattle is often offset by the increase cost such as gas and parking associated with driving,” he said.
