Airport Alert: House Democrats Unveil Coronavirus Relief Package With $13.5 Billion for Airports, Concessionaires

September 28, 2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other Democratic leaders this evening unveiled a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package that includes $13.5 billion for airports and concessionaires. The revised Heroes Act also includes more than $28 billion to extend the Payroll Support Program as the airlines prepare to layoff or furlough tens of thousands of employees. AAAE released a statement tonight praising House leaders for addressing airport, airline, and concessionaire needs in the package.

Airports: Overall, the House Democratic proposal includes approximately $13.5 billion to help airports and concessionaires as they continue to face severe financial pressures related to the coronavirus and significant reduction in passengers and revenue.

Commercial Service Airports: The new relief package bill includes $12.5 billion for primary commercial service airports. Funds would be distributed based on 2019 enplanements and could be used for "any purpose for which airport revenues may lawfully be used."

Concessionaires: Airports would be required to use 25 percent of those funds - or approximately $3.125 billion - to provide relief to "on airport car rental, on-airport parking, and in-terminal airport concessions...in the form of waiving rent, minimum annual guarantees, lease obligations, fees, or penalties, or, at the request of the owner of an in-terminal concession to provide for a buyout of such concession." Airports would be required to "give the highest priority to an owner who qualifies as an small businesses with maximum gross receipts less than $56 million."

AAAE, ACI-NA, AMAC, and the Airport Restaurant and Retail Association have urged lawmakers to provide at least $10 billion for airports and an additional $3.5 billion for concessionaires who have also been hard hit by the pandemic.

Local Match: As we requested, the bill includes at least $500 million to cover the local match requirement for AIP projects funded in Fiscal Year 2021. If enacted into law, this proposal would benefit commercial service and general aviation airports alike. It is also consistent with the CARES Act, which included $500 million to cover the local match for AIP projects funded with FY20 dollars.

General Aviation Airports: The bill includes up to $200 million for nonprimary commercial service and general aviation airports. The CARES Act included $100 million for GA airports - a modest amount considering the 3,000 eligible GA airport around the country. AAAE and ACI-NA have been urging Congress to provide GA airports with an additional $1.5 billion.

Federal Share: The federal share for grants to airports would be 100 percent.

Eligibility: Any airport that received more than four years of operating expenses under the CARES Act is ineligible for these funds.

Workforce Retention: The bill requires that airports receiving funding to "continue to employ, through September 30, 2021, at least 90 percent of the number of individuals employed (after making adjustments for retirements or voluntary employee separations) by the airport as of March 27, 2020."

Similar to the CARES Act, the workforce retention requirement may be waived by the Secretary of Transportation if a determination is made that the airport is "experiencing economic hardship as a direct result of the requirement, or the requirement reduces aviation safety or security." This requirement would not apply to nonhub or nonprimary airports.

Essential Air Service: The bill includes an additional $75 million for EAS.

Airlines: The House Democratic bill would also extend the Payroll Support Program through March of 2021 with more than $28 billion. Of that amount, $25 billion would go toward passenger air carriers, $3 billion for contractors, and $300 million for cargo carriers.

The CARES Act included $32 for aviation workers -- $25 billion for passenger carriers, $4 billion for cargo carriers and $3 billion for contractors. The initial airline funding included some strings including a prohibition on involuntary layoffs or furloughs. But those requirements are set to expire on October 1.

Airlines, labor groups and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called on Congressional leaders to extend the PSP through March to prevent passenger carriers from laying off or furloughing tens of thousands of employees.

How This Compares to the Senate Republican Proposal: Senate Republicans in late July unveiled the "HEALS Act," a $1 trillion coronavirus relief package that includes $10 billion for airports. But it did not include separate funds for concessionaires. Senate Republicans later tried to move a "skinny" relief package that reduced their initial proposal in half and omitted funding for airports and a long list of other entities.

The fact that House Democrats and Senate Republicans proposed $10 billion or more for airports should mean that we're in a good starting position should both sides try to work out a bipartisan agreement on another relief package. However, we'll need to stay actively engaged with Capitol Hill as negotiations continue, particularly if pressure continues to reduce the size of the overall package.

What's Next: Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Steven Mnuchin have been working to try to resolve their differences on the size and the substance of the next relief package. House Democrats have come down more than $1 trillion from their initial $3.5 trillion plan. White House officials have indicated that they may be willing to go to $1.5 billion, leaving the two sides about $1 trillion apart.

Whether Democrats and Republicans on the Hill and at the White House will be able to coalesce around another relief package remains to be seen. But there is chance - albeit a small one - that we could see Congress vote on bipartisan plan before the upcoming elections. If not, discussions will like continue into the lame duck and possibly into the new Congress.

Request: House leaders have told us that they expect the House will vote on the coronavirus relief package on Tuesday or Wednesday. Please contact your House lawmakers as soon as possible and them to support funding for airports and our industry partners.

Talking Points

On behalf of _______, I would like to urge you to support efforts in the House to include $13.5 billion in the next coronavirus relief package to help airports and concessionaires deal with the severe financial pressures related to the coronavirus.

We deeply appreciate the assistance that Congress provided to airports in the CARES Act. But as the coronavirus crisis drags on, it is becoming increasingly clear that airports and our partners are going to need additional assistance to survive in the months and years ahead.

Congress can help by providing airports with additional federal assistance. The revised Heroes Act, which House Democrats recently unveiled, includes $13.5 billion to help large and small airports as well as concessionaires. I strongly support the proposed airport funding in that package.

Getting more federal funds out the door and into local communities as quickly as possible would ensure that airports can continue to respond to new operational demands, pay for debt service on their bonds, and help keep their critical safety and security projects on track.

Please make sure that the next coronavirus relief package includes $13.5 billion to help airports and concessionaires respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

Additional Information