MS airfields to split $34.8M grants

TUPELO, Miss. - Seventy-three Mississippi airports and airfields, which have experienced “severe economic disruption because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will split nearly $34.9M in Federal Aviation Administration grants funded under the recently enacted Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Mississippi’s U.S. senators, Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, made the announcement April 14. “This emergency funding will help our airports mitigate the worst effects of the coronavirus on their operations so they can continue to support air travel after this crisis has ended,” Wicker said. The senator is chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which was responsible for negotiating transportation-related provisions in the CARES Act. Among some of the other larger grants are: Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport – $20,929,795; Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport – $8,561,630; Golden Triangle Regional Airport, Columbus – $1,190,282; Key Field, Meridian – $1,079,543; and Tupelo Regional Airport – $1,055,781. Other grant recipients included: Iuka and Corinth (both $30,000); Oxford ($69,000), Starkville ($69,000), and West Point ($20,000). (Source: Daily Journal 04/14/20) https://www.djournal.com/news/business/mississippi-airports-receive-nearly-35m-in-grants-for-economic-disruption/article_3fef8cfd-3029-5d44-bfdc-d91731df5368.html. Other airports in the Gulf Coast region receiving grants were Mobile Regional Airport, $15.1 million, and Mobile Downtown Airport, $69,000, both in Alabama. In NW Florida, Destin-Fort Walton Beach is getting $12.4M, Pensacola International Airport $11M, and NW Florida Beaches International Airport $6.3M. In Louisiana, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International is receiving $42.8M, and Lakefront New Orleans is getting $157,000.