Small Community Air Service Development Program

Eligible Applicants

Additional Requirements

The Department determines application eligibility as part of the Eligibility Review stage. Applicants and applications deemed ineligible at this stage will be disqualified. The Department will apply the criteria under Section C.1 as part of the Eligibility Review stage. Only public entities may apply for and serve as the legal sponsor of a grant under the Small Community Program. Private organizations cannot be the lead applicant. A community may file only one application for a grant, either individually or as part of a consortium. Consortium Applications: Both individual communities and consortia of communities are eligible for SCASDP funds. An application from a consortium of communities must be one that seeks to facilitate the efforts of the communities working together toward one joint grant project, with one joint objective, including the establishment of one entity to ensure that the joint objective is accomplished. Communities Without Existing Air Service: Communities that do not currently have commercial air service are eligible for SCASDP funds. Eligible Projects: The Department is authorized to award grants under 49 U.S.C. 41743(d) to communities that seek to provide assistance to: A U.S. air carrier to subsidize service to and from an underserved airport for a period not to exceed 3 years; An underserved airport, or an airport where air service has been terminated or substantially reduced, to obtain service to and from the underserved airport; and/or An underserved airport to implement such other measures as the Secretary, in consultation with such airport, considers appropriate to improve air service both in terms of the cost of such service to consumers and the availability of such service, including improving air service through marketing and promotion of air service and enhanced utilization of airport facilities. Eligibility Limitations: Hub Size: In order to satisfy the hub size requirement set forth in 49 U.S.C. 41743(c)(1)(A), the airport serving the community or consortium may not be larger than a small hub airport, as determined using the FAAs most recently published classification effective on the Departments set application deadline (due date). Same Project Limitation: Under 49 U.S.C. 41743(c)(4)(B), as amended by FAA 2024, a community or consortium may not receive a new grant to support the same project more than once in a five-year period. In assessing whether a previous recipients current application represents a new project, the Department will compare the goals and objectives of the previous grant, including the key components of the means by which those goals and objectives were to be achieved, to the current application. For example, if a community received an earlier grant to support a revenue guarantee for service to a particular destination or direction, a new application by that community for another revenue guarantee for service to the same destination or in the same direction would be subject to the five-year restriction, even if the revenue guarantee were structured differently or the type of carrier were different. However, a new application by such a previous recipient for service to a new destination or direction using a revenue guarantee, or for general marketing and promotion (including advertising and public relations) of the airport and the various services it offers, would be eligible. The Department recognizes that not all revenue guarantees, marketing agreements, studies, or other activities are of the same nature, and that if a subsequent application incorporates different goals or significantly different components, it may be sufficiently different to constitute a new project under 49 U.S.C. 41743(c). Beginning in FAA 2018, Congress authorized limited waivers of the Five-Year Same Project Limitation. Under Section 41743(c)(4)(C), as amended by FAA 2024, the S

Geographic Eligibility

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