Airport terminal not funded

The Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport did not receive funding from the Federal Aviation Administration for its commercial airport terminal upgrades.

“To say we are disappointed, would be an understatement,” Airport Director Devon Brubaker said. 

However, Brubaker knew there was a lot of strong competition with 2,652 applications totaling $10.9 billion for airport projects. The funding available for this round was $779 million.

“According to our discussions with the FAA, our application was well received and did not have any faults. There were simply more pressing projects in the National Airspace System,” Brubaker said.

A total of 127 airports received funding for their projects across the country, including three Wyoming airports Casper, Rawlins and Torrington, a press release from the FAA stated.

The Casper/Natrona County International Airport was awarded $8,714,750, which will be used to rehabilitate an aircraft rescue and firefighting training facility and purchase a new 3,000-gallon ARFF vehicle. Rawlins Municipal/Harvey Field will receive $2.9 million to rehabilitate a runway, while Torrington Municipal Airport will receive $5 million to relocate and extend a taxiway.

“We were thrilled to see three airports in Wyoming secure this much funding. Anytime we can bring federal dollars into Wyoming is a good thing for our economy and our airports,” Brubaker said. “We will greatly benefit from the improved ARFF training facility in Casper. Additionally, there will be a trickled-own effect due the three projects that were funded in Wyoming.”

Brubaker said a large portion of those projects was going to be funded by WYDOT, but now the state can re-allocate that funding for other state projects.

As for the reason why this airport didn’t receive the funding, Brubaker knows it wasn’t because the project isn’t important, it just didn’t beat out some others.

“We have had informal discussions with the FAA that have lead us to believe that this was a result of so many great projects and so little funding versus our project not rising high enough,” he said.

The next steps

Even though the airport didn’t receive funding this round, that doesn’t mean it won’t in the third round of funding, which is estimated at $500 million.

“We do qualify for that funding and will apply once we have guidance from the FAA on the process,” Brubaker said.

Even if the airport doesn’t receive this funding the project will move forward.

“We are still programmed to receive $3 million Airport Improvement Program entitlement funding starting in fiscal year 2021,” he said. “We are still working with the FAA on moving this project earlier with other discretionary funding.”

Brubaker said the U.S. Congress has authorized up to $1 billion in additional funding for the general fund over each of the next several years.

This funding will need to be appropriated before it becomes available.

“Locally, the airport is nearing completion of the conceptual-design phase for the terminal project,” Brubaker said.

“We will be working closely with the FAA, WYDOT, Wyoming Business Council, city and county to develop a funding model for the project going forward. It is our goal to minimize the local contribution to the smallest amount possible,” he said.