Feds sending $32M to help Fresno, Merced area airports affected by coronavirus pandemic
Editor’s note: On Thursday, the city of Merced announced that the Federal Aviation Administration had revised the amount of a coronavirus-related grant for the Merced Municipal Airport from almost $16.9 million to a new figure of about $3.4 million. No reason was given for why the grat was reduced the reduction.
Airports in Merced, Fresno and other San Joaquin Valley communities are getting a small $32 million slice of the $2.2 trillion pie that Congress passed in March as part of its coronavirus relief legislation.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that 25 Valley airports from Turlock in the north to Bakersfield in the south will receive grants to help offset the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their operations. They are among more than 3,200 large, mid-sized and small airports nationwide to which a total of more than $9 billion is being awarded from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
The money is “to support U.S. airports experiencing severe economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 public health emergency,” the federal agency indicated on its website. “This funding will be distributed to airports to prevent, prepare for and respond to the impacts” of the pandemic.
In the Valley, the two largest grants are $16.9 million for Merced Regional Airport/Macready Field in Merced and $12.9 million to Fresno Yosemite International Airport in Fresno.
“Airports live and die by the number of passengers that come through,” Kevin Meikle, the city of Fresno’s director of aviation, told The Bee this week. “So much of our revenue is based on the number of enplanements, or the number of passengers that board flights.”
Over the past two months, he added, the bottom has dropped out from under the passenger airline industry, not just in Fresno, but nationwide.
“Compared to this time last year, we’re down 95%, and that’s pretty much the industry average,” Meikle said. “What that means is we’re just not getting the revenue to support keeping the doors open. But we are keeping the doors open. … We’ve had no reduction in staff, no furloughs. Our expenses are still going to be there even if no one is flying on planes.”
Between day-to-day operating costs at the airport – including security, maintenance of runways, taxiways, airfield lighting and other necessities – and debt-service obligations, “our operating budget is about $30 million for the fiscal year ending June 30,” Meikle said.
But the reduction in landing fees and per-passenger security fees paid by airlines to the airport since mid-March suggest that total revenue will come up to only $24 million. That’s about $6 million short of what’s needed to make the budget.
Just under half of the grant for Fresno Yosemite International Airport will be used to make up that shortfall; the other $6.9 million will be applied to the 2020-21 fiscal year.
“Everybody in the airport industry believes we are going to come out of this, that there will be a gradual climb back out starting perhaps in June,” Meikle said. “But it may take 12 to 14 months from now, the end of the next fiscal year, before we’re back where we were before this started.”
Airlines have responded to the dramatic drop in paying passengers by reducing the number of flights they’re flying, including to and from Fresno. Because the CARES Act also included about $25 billion for airlines to stay afloat despite their losses in the pandemic, Meikle said domestic carriers are obligated to meet minimal levels of service. “We still have some semblance of service to all of our domestic destinations” from Fresno, he said.
Foreign airlines, such as Volaris and Aeromexico which provide international flights between Fresno and cities in Mexico, don’t benefit from, and are not bound by, the CARES Act. Both of those carriers have suspended operations through May, but Meikle said they have indicated plans to resume flights to and from Fresno on June 1.
One major project that’s not being disrupted at Fresno Yosemite International is the planned construction of a four-story, 900-space parking garage. The $35 million required for the garage has already been set aside for the capital project. “We’re well into the design and we plan to break ground in July and have it open in the fall of 2021,” Meikle said.
The economic slowdown prompted by the coronavirus pandemic could result in lowering the cost of the garage project, he added. “We’re probably looking at some favorable bidding and pricing, because this will be a guaranteed project that will put people to work on something during hard times,” Meikle said.
Other airports in the region are getting grants based on formulas considering what they were due to receive this year from the U.S. Department of Transportation, regardless of whether they have passenger airline service.
In Merced, Airport Manager Martin Pehl said the grant will be used for a range of planned projects, including refurbishing the terminal building and parking lot, improvements to the runway and taxiway, and other components of the airport’s master plan.
“This funding will not only help the airport, but also local businesses that will be providing goods and services for the projects that will improve our facility,” said Frank Quintero, Merced’s economic development director.
Other Valley airports receiving money include Castle Airport in Atwater, Chowchilla Airport, Gustine Airport, Los Banos Municipal Airport and Turlock Municipal Airport. Each of those will receive $30,000, according to a news release from the Office of Congressman Jim Costa.
Madera Municipal Airport will receive $69,000.
Statewide, 188 airports won grants totaling just under $1.1 billion from the CARES Act program.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 3:51 PM.
