Charlotte-Douglas International Airport will receive millions in federal funding from a program designed to improve passenger experiences.
The airport, one of the busiest in the country, is set to receive $27 million to help fund up to 16 new passenger boarding bridges, the walkways passengers use to get to and from a plane to the terminal gate. The total cost of the project is $86.8 million, according to figures released by the White House.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was at the airport February 16 to announce the grant, kicking off a nationwide tour by Biden administration officials to highlight almost $1 billion in grants. The money will go toward 114 airports across 44 states and three territories, Buttigieg said.
It’s the third year of grants given out by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Terminals Program, a five-year, $5 billion initiative established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which passed in 2021.
“It includes a lot of what you might call ‘front of house’ improvements, things you see and feel when you get ready to fly,” Buttigieg told reporters at a preview of the announcement Wednesday. Charlotte’s plan will make passengers’ “walk from the gate to the seat more comfortable” and help provide “safe, filtered air,” he noted.
On Thursday, February 15, Buttigieg described Charlotte-Douglas as “growing, important and deserving” of the grant. “No matter what brings you to this airport, so much depends on the airport being ready to meet your needs,” he said. The secretary said the passenger bridges are integral to getting people on and off their flights in a timely manner. “Even most of us infrastructure nerds don’t wake up in the morning thinking about jet bridges, but if your flight arrived on-time only for you to be waiting to get off that plane because there’s an issue with the jet bridge, you’re thinking about nothing else,” he said.
Buttigieg lauded North Carolina’s congressional delegation for pushing for the grant and “bipartisan” law that funded it, including Democratic Charlotte-area Reps. Alma Adams and Jeff Jackson and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.
At the event, state and local leaders called the airport an economic engine for the region and the state. “The economic importance of our airport cannot be overstated,” Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said.
Gov. Roy Cooper added he “knows first hand” that businesses factor the airport’s performance into decisions on whether to do work in North Carolina. “Getting people from one place to the next in the quickest, safest, cleanest, most convenient way is critical for all of us,” he said. Lyles and Cooper both also thanked the White House for its push for infrastructure spending.
Federal officials selected Charlotte to announce the latest round of grants despite the fact that other airports will receive bigger awards. But the Charlotte area has been a popular destination for the Biden administration in recent weeks as the president ramps up his reelection campaign, including visits from Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
That drew the attention of the North Carolina chapter of the conservative political group Americans for Prosperity, which called Buttigieg’s visit “nothing more than a taxpayer-funded campaign stop.”
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I a Charlotte residence and it make no sense to pull 80 billon dollars in to a airport that did not need the change that’s a waste of money honestly. If you actually lived here there not really fixing the airport that just making more runways. We’re is that other half of the money