Airports Need $67.5 Billion. The Program Covering Half of It Just Sent Its Last Check.
Summary
The FAA's own construction plan for the nation's airports counts $67.5 billion in needed work through 2029. In fiscal 2026 the FAA released the fifth and final installment of the infrastructure law's airport grants, after which annual federal funding drops from $7.89 billion to $4 billion — a cut the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates could widen the airport funding gap from $114 billion to $162 billion by 2033.
What the says airports need
The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is a report the is required by law to publish, listing every project at every public-use airport that would qualify for federal grant money. The 2025-2029 edition, published September 30, 2024, counts roughly 18,100 projects at 3,287 existing airports and five airports expected to open by 2029, totaling $67.5 billion — up 8% from the prior edition two years earlier.
The single largest slice isn't glamorous: $22.5 billion, a third of the total, is pavement — sealing, rehabilitating, and reconstructing the runways, taxiways, and aprons that wear out on a 15-to-25-year cycle. Terminal work is close behind at $22.2 billion, a category that grew after 2021's infrastructure law made gates and related terminal areas eligible for the first time. Bringing airports up to current design standards — wider runway separations, corrected taxiway geometry — accounts for $12.3 billion more.
View data as table
| Pavement rehab/reconstruction | $22.5B | 33.3% |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal improvements | $22.2B | 32% |
| Airport design standards | $12.3B | 18.1% |
| Airport capacity | $3.8B | 5.7% |
| Other categories | $3.505B | environment, noise, new airports, ATCT, misc. |
| Surface access | $1.4B | 2.1% |
| Safety & security | $1.9B | 3.0% |
The money that was supposed to close the gap
The 's baseline grant program, the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), is funded by contract authority fixed in statute — currently $4.0 billion a year for FY2025 through FY2028, under the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 (P.L. 118-63), up from $3.35 billion a year set back in 2018. On its own, $4 billion a year — $20 billion over the NPIAS's five-year window — was never going to reach $67.5 billion.
The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) was built to close that gap temporarily. It created the Airport Infrastructure Grant (AIG) program, $14.5 billion over five years, and the Airport Terminal Program (ATP), $5 billion over five years, $1 billion a year. Both run FY2022 through FY2026 — and both just paid out for the last time. The 's own AIG page states plainly that the agency "has released the fifth and final installment of $2.89 billion in funding for U.S. airports," and the ATP page confirms the is "no longer accepting applications" because "the application period for fiscal year 2026" has closed. Add AIP's $4.0 billion to AIG's final $2.89 billion and ATP's final $1.0 billion, and total federal airport capital funding for FY2026 comes to $7.89 billion — still barely more than half the $13.5 billion a year the NPIAS says is needed.
Starting FY2027, absent new legislation, that $7.89 billion reverts to $4.0 billion — the AIP baseline alone. Nothing has been enacted to replace the BIL money once it expires.
View data as table
| FAA-identified need (annual avg., 2025–29) | $13.5B | $67.5B / 5 years |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026: AIP + BIL's final installment | $7.89B | $4.0B AIP + $2.89B AIG + $1.0B ATP |
| FY2027: AIP alone, after BIL expires | $4.0B | down 49%; no successor enacted yet |
An independent estimate says the same thing
The 's $67.5 billion figure only counts projects eligible for AIP or BIL funding — it isn't the full universe of airport capital spending. The American Society of Civil Engineers, an independent professional association with no role in administering federal grants, ran its own model in its 2025 Infrastructure Report Card and reached a structurally similar conclusion through a different door: airports need $310 billion between 2024 and 2033, against $168 billion in projected funding from all sources — if infrastructure-law-level investment continues past 2026. ASCE's own math shows what happens if it doesn't: the funding gap widens from $114 billion to $162 billion should federal investment "snap back to prior levels," which is exactly what's now scheduled to happen. Two organizations, using different scopes and methods, both find the same shape: a gap that gets worse, not better, once the infrastructure law's airport money is gone.
The takeaway
- The 's own accounting says federal airport funding was never going to cover the need. Even with the infrastructure law's grants included, FY2026's $7.89 billion funds barely 58% of the $13.5 billion a year the says is needed.
- The shortfall is about to get worse on a fixed date, not a projection. AIG and ATP both expire after FY2026 by the terms of the law that created them — the has already confirmed both programs sent their final payments.
- An outside estimate lands on the same story. ASCE's independent model shows the aviation funding gap widening by tens of billions of dollars specifically because federal investment is scheduled to fall back to pre-infrastructure-law levels — the same mechanism the 's own program pages describe.
The $67.5 billion NPIAS figure covers only AIP/BIL-eligible development at NPIAS airports; ASCE's $310 billion figure uses a broader definition of airport infrastructure need and a different 2024-2033 window, so the two totals are not directly additive — each is cited here for what it is, not combined into a single number.
Sources
- , National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) 2025-2029 (published September 30, 2024, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 47103) — the $67.5 billion total need, the project and airport counts, and the category-by-category breakdown. faa.gov
- Public Law 118-63, Reauthorization Act of 2024 (signed May 16, 2024) — sets AIP contract authority at $4.0 billion annually for FY2025-FY2028. congress.gov
- , "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - Airport Infrastructure Grants (AIG)" — the $14.5 billion, five-year program total and confirmation that FY2026's $2.89 billion was "the fifth and final installment." faa.gov/iija/airport-infrastructure
- , "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - Airport Terminals Program" — the $5 billion, five-year ($1 billion/year) program total and confirmation that the FY2026 application period, the program's last, has closed. faa.gov/iija/airport-terminals
- , Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF) Fact Sheet (updated February 2026) — the FY2025 actual funding breakdown by account (AIP contract authority, grants) used to cross-check the FY2026 arithmetic. faa.gov
- American Society of Civil Engineers, 2025 Infrastructure Report Card — Aviation (citing ASCE's "Bridging the Gap" economic study) — the independent $310 billion need and $114–162 billion funding-gap estimates for 2024-2033. infrastructurereportcard.org
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Every five years, the publishes a plan listing exactly what it thinks the nation's airports need to build — runways resealed, terminals expanded, control towers replaced — and prices it out. The current plan, covering 2025 through 2029, prices it at $67.5 billion across 3,287 existing airports and five new ones. Federal money has never covered that in full. This year it covers less than it did — and next year it covers less still, because the temporary program that has been paying nearly half the bill just ran out.