JACKSON, Wyo. — During the special joint information meeting at 1 p.m. April 12, the town and county authorized the Jackson Hole Airport board to accept an FAA grant totaling $3,239,894 to be used for operating costs and debt services related to COVID-19.
FAA CRGP Grant agreement No. 3-56-0014-065-2021 provides funding for costs related to operations, personnel, cleaning, sanitization, janitorial services, and combating the spread of pathogens at the airport, as well as debt service payments. The grant is part of a special relief package approved by Congress in Decmeber 2020.
The airport board already approved the grant but the town and county are co-signers on federal grants, so the airport needed approval prior to accepting the funding.
“This is a reimbursement grant just like the original CARES grant, so it’s not a case where the money just comes in in one lump sum, we go through a reimbursement paperwork process and its reviewed by the FAA for eligibility and making sure that all the “T’s” are crossed and “I’s” are dotted before any funds come back to the airport,” explained Jackson Hole Airport Director, Jim Elwood.
Elwood also shared information about the airport’s revenue and enplanement levels this past year. “We budgeted for a very steep decline,” said Elwood.
Enplanement levels at the airport were down, as expected. “We ended up down 42% looking at March to March,” said Elwood, but Jackson Hole Airport did better than the national average, “they were down 72% over that same window of time.”
He also shared figures related to revenue and expenses, “our income was about 27% higher than we budgeted going into the year,” he said, adding, “our expenses were 4% below what was projected.”
Nationally “yesterday’s numbers were down 64% from the same day in 2019.” said Elwood. “Overall we have absolutely faired better than most airports in the country.”
The Jackson Town Council and the Teton County Board of County Commissioners approved the authorization of the grant unanimously.
