49 U.S.C. § 47114 — Apportionments

(a) Definition — "Amount subject to apportionment" means the money newly made available for a fiscal year under section 48103.

(b) Apportionment Date — On the first day of each fiscal year, the Secretary divides up that money as this section describes.

(c) Amounts Apportioned to Sponsors — (1) Primary and commercial service airports: (A) each primary airport's sponsor gets, based on the prior calendar year's passenger boardings, $15.60 for each of the first 50,000 boardings, $10.40 for each of the next 50,000, $5.20 for each of the next 400,000, $1.30 for each of the next 500,000, and $1.00 for every boarding after that. (B) No primary airport can get less than $1,300,000 or more than $22,000,000 in a year under (A). (C) A brand-new airport with scheduled passenger service gets a flat $1,300,000 in its first fiscal year, instead of the (A) formula. (D) A nonprimary commercial service airport gets $60 for each of the first 2,500 prior-year boardings and $153.33 for each of the next 7,499, and this money follows the same use rules as apportionments under subsection (d)(4) and (5). (E) For fiscal years 2025 through 2028, a public airport counts as primary if it was designated primary in fiscal year 2017 and is used by an air reserve station in the year used to calculate that year's apportionment. (F) For fiscal year 2024 only, regardless of whether the airport currently has scheduled passenger service, the Secretary must apportion money based on whichever of these gives the airport the highest amount: calendar year 2018, calendar year 2019, or the full calendar year right before fiscal year 2024.

(2) Cargo airports: (A) 4 percent of the year's apportionable money, subject to (D), goes to sponsors of airports served only by cargo aircraft with more than 25,000,000 pounds of total annual landed weight. (B) That money is split among those airports based on each airport's share of total landed weight. (C) Before distributing under (A), the Secretary may set aside part of the money for other airports it selects that it finds are served mainly by cargo aircraft. (D) "Landed weight" here means the landed weight during the prior calendar year.

(d) Amounts Apportioned for General Aviation Airports — (1) "Area" means land and water; "population" means the count from the latest U.S. census. (2) In any year where at least $3,200,000,000 total is available under section 48103, the Secretary apportions 25 percent of the year's money this way instead of the usual method: (A) each non-commercial-service airport, including relievers, gets the smaller of $150,000 or one-fifth of its most recent published 5-year airport-improvement cost estimate from the national plan of integrated airport systems; (B) whatever money is left goes to states as follows: (i) 0.62 percent to Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands; (ii) except as (4) modifies, 49.69 percent split among other states' non-commercial-service airports based on each state's share of total population; (iii) except as (4) modifies, another 49.69 percent split the same way based on each state's share of total land area. (C) An airport once listed as unclassified in the national airport-systems plan, but that has since regained classified status, can again collect money under (A) as long as it keeps that status.

(3) Airports in noncontiguous states and territories: (A) money apportioned to Alaska, Puerto Rico, or Hawaii for airports there can be used for any public airport in that jurisdiction. (B) Money apportioned under paragraph (2)(B)(i) can be used for any public-use airport in Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands if the Secretary finds too few qualified applications for the airports that would otherwise get it, and the Secretary must prioritize using it back in the territory it originally came from.

(4) Use of state highway specifications — the Secretary must use a state's highway paving specifications, instead of FAA standards, for runway paving at nonprimary airports serving aircraft under 60,000 pounds, funded under this subsection or subsection (c)(1)(D), if the state requests it and the Secretary determines it will not hurt safety and the pavement will last as long.

(5) Integrated airport system planning — money from this subsection or subsection (c)(1)(D) may also fund planning that covers one or more primary airports.

(6) Eligibility for the primary-airport minimum — the Secretary may give an airport sponsor the same minimum amount a primary airport gets under (c)(1)(B) if the Secretary finds the airport (A) got scheduled or unscheduled service from a large certificated air carrier in the year used to calculate the apportionment, and (B) had more than 10,000 boardings that year.

(e) Supplemental Apportionment for Alaska — (1) Despite the normal rules in (c) and (d), the Secretary may apportion Alaska airport money the same way it was split in the fiscal year ending September 30, 1980, under the old law, but must still give each primary Alaska airport at least what (c)(1) would give it, and give Alaska airports overall at least the 1980 minimum amount. (2) This does not stop the Secretary from also making discretionary-fund grants to Alaska airports under section 47115. (3) Money apportioned this way can be used for any public airport in Alaska. (4) In any year with at least $3,200,000,000 available, Alaska's apportionment under (1) is doubled.

(f) Reducing Apportionments — (1) If a medium or large hub airport charges a passenger facility fee under section 40117, its apportionment, except under (c)(2), is reduced: (A) for a charge of $3.00 or less, normally by 40 percent of the projected fee revenue, capped at 40 percent of what the airport would otherwise get; a Hawaii airport gets the same 40 percent rate, but calculated against a reduced base that excludes its share of interisland-passenger boardings; (B) for a charge over $3.00, the same approach applies but at 60 percent instead of 40 percent, with the same Hawaii carve-out. (2) The reduction does not take effect until the fiscal year after fee collection actually begins, and only applies once an airport has been ranked medium or large hub for three years running.

(g) Supplemental Apportionment for Puerto Rico and United States Territories — The Secretary must apportion money for airports in Puerto Rico and all other U.S. territories under this section's normal rules, and this does not stop the Secretary from also making discretionary-fund grants to those airports under section 47115.