City of Tuscaloosa Awarded $750,000 Grant for Air Service Development
February 28, 2020
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has awarded the City of Tuscaloosa with a $750,000 grant from the Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP).
SCASDP distributed $12.2M in grants to 18 communities in 18 states this year. These grants allow communities to assess and develop solutions for their air service needs and can be used to provide financial risk mitigation and fee waivers to air carriers, conduct studies to potentially expand service, and promote new or existing local services. This year, the USDOT received 57 applications from 30 states.
As the City of Tuscaloosa works to enhance air service capabilities at the Tuscaloosa National Airport, this grant will serve as a minimum revenue guarantee for a potential air carrier, and provide associated marketing support.
“This is a great opportunity for our community and I want to thank all those that provided support for our application and the Department of Transportation for selecting Tuscaloosa,” Jeff Powell, Tuscaloosa National Airport Manager, says. “We will use this grant as another step to further our efforts with network carriers in providing scheduled air service to Tuscaloosa. This grant announcement is very timely for us as we just recently completed the community survey. These programs and data will allow us to remain competitive against other communities across the nation.”
Each recipient of the grant shares in the responsibility of providing financial resources to supplement the federal support. For Tuscaloosa, this results in a $300,000 match, with $150,000 coming from the City of Tuscaloosa and an additional $150,000 from community partners. Complete community proposals and the USDOT’s final order are available at www.regulations.gov, docket DOT-OST-2019-0071.