On April 5, 2000, the President signed the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR-21), P.L. 106-181. Among other things, the statute established a new pilot program designed to help smaller communities enhance their air service. The statute directs the Secretary of Transportation to assist communities in developing projects that will improve their access to the National air transportation system through public-private partnerships, and to help communities overcome factors that might be inhibiting improvements in their current air service.
      Specifically, the law authorizes the Secretary to provide financial assistance (direct financial assistance to an air carrier is limited to three years) to as many as 40 communities nationwide in each year for which program funds are appropriated, though no more than four of those may be from the same state. Communities that are eligible to participate in the grant program are those communities that are served by an airport that was not larger than a small hub airport for calendar year 1997, as defined by 49 U.S.C. 41743 (c), and had insufficient air service or unreasonably high air fares. Communities that currently do not have air service qualify, but the airport where service would be provided must meet the certification requirements of the Federal Aviation Administration for commercial airports. While no community is required to contribute a portion or share of the cost of this program, the law directs the Secretary to give priority to those communities where: (a) average air fares are higher than the air fares for all communities; (b) a portion of the cost of the activity contemplated by the community is provided from local, non-airport-revenue sources; (c) a public-private partnership has been or will be established to facilitate air carrier service to the public; and, (d) improved service will bring the material benefits of scheduled air transportation to a broad section of the traveling public, including businesses, educational institutions, and other enterprises whose access to the National air transportation system is limited.
     The statute authorized the Pilot Program for a period of three years beginning in fiscal year 2001. No funds were appropriated for the first year the program was authorized, but in the Department’s FY 2002 appropriation bill, P.L. 107-87, Congress appropriated $20 million for the program, to remain available until expended. After soliciting proposals from interested communities, in June 2002, the Department made grant awards to 40 of the 180 communities that had submitted grant proposals. Order 2002-6-14. Those awards were subject to the communities completing a formal grant agreement with the Department for implementation of their grant projects.