49 U.S.C. § 47118 — Designating current and former military airports

(a) General Requirements — The Secretary must designate current or former military airports eligible for grants under section 47117(e)(1)(B), with no more than 15 carrying that designation at any time. Except for an airport already designated before August 24, 1994, a new designation requires the airport to be (1) a former military installation closed or realigned under one of three specific laws; (2) a military installation with both military and civil aircraft operations; or (3)(A) a former military installation that the Department of Defense owned and operated at some point after December 31, 1965, and that is also (B) a nonhub primary airport.

(b) Survey — By September 30, 1991, the Secretary had to complete a survey of current and former military airports to identify which had the greatest potential to improve national air transportation system capacity, including their capital development needs and which qualified for grants under section 47104.

(c) Considerations — The Secretary may consider an airport for designation only if a grant under section 47117(e)(1)(B) would (1) reduce delays at an airport with more than 20,000 hours of annual delay in commercial passenger takeoffs and landings; (2) enhance airport or air traffic control capacity in a metropolitan area, or reduce current or projected flight delays; or (3) preserve or enhance minimum airfield infrastructure at former military airports needed to support emergency diversions of overseas flights, in locations under U.S. jurisdiction or control where there is a demonstrable lack of diversion airports within the distance or flight-time required by transoceanic flight regulations.

(d) Grants — Grants under section 47117(e)(1)(B) may go to a designated airport for the 5 fiscal years following designation, and for later periods of up to 5 fiscal years each, as long as the Secretary finds the airport still meets the subsection (a) criteria at the start of each new period.

(e) Terminal Building Facilities — From money the Secretary distributes under section 47115, $10,000,000 is set aside for each of fiscal years 2004 and 2005, and $7,000,000 for every fiscal year after that, for a designated military airport sponsor to construct, improve, or repair a terminal building, including passenger boarding gates. A gate built or repaired this way (1) cannot be leased for more than 10 years, and (2) is not subject to majority-in-interest clauses.

(f) Parking Lots, Fuel Farms, Utilities, Hangars, and Air Cargo Terminals — (1) The same set-asides described in subsection (e) also cover constructing, improving, or repairing airport surface parking lots, fuel farms, utilities, and hangars or air cargo terminals of 50,000 square feet or less, at designated airports. (2) With the Secretary's approval, a designated airport sponsor may use money apportioned under section 47114 or made available under section 47115 or 47117(e)(1)(B) to reimburse itself for such construction, improvement, or repair costs it already paid in fiscal years 2003 and 2004.

(g) Designation of General Aviation Airports — Up to 3 of the 15 designation slots may go to general aviation airports that were former military installations closed or realigned under a law listed in subsection (a)(1).

(h) Safety-Critical Airports — Despite any other provision of this chapter, a designated federally owned airport may receive a grant under section 47117(e)(1)(B) for a project that (1) preserves or enhances the emergency-diversion airfield facilities described in subsection (c)(3), and (2) is necessary to meet minimum safety and emergency operational requirements under FAA regulations.