MARQUETTE — Over $18 million in federal assistance funding for K.I. Sawyer International Airport is in the works.

During its June 2 meeting, the Marquette County Board of Commissioners accepted funding from the Federal Aviation Administration via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which passed in Congress on March 27. The funding was announced in April.

This $18 million is part of $256 million for Michigan airports that was facilitated by the Federal Aviation Administration funding to support airports experiencing severe economic disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marquette County Administrator Scott Erbisch said the grant is an important and welcome resource to help pay for operational expenses and capital improvements.

He said the county’s annual operating budget for the airport is around $2.2 million including utilities, employee salaries and related benefits, and maintenance to the facility.

He noted the funds cannot be diverted for any other purpose than the airport.

He said one of the maintenance projects the grant funding could be used for is the airport’s parking lot system, as fees collected from airport parking are a key component of the facility’s revenue stream. The current system at the parking lot is an automatic gate system, he said.

“However, even early on with the implementation of that system, it started to fail and had breakdowns. And so we have been struggling with that since late 2009 and that system is beyond its time. And it needs to be repaired and that will be an expense,” Erbisch said. “We typically operate in a deficit, so the parking lot system is a crucial component of what we do in an airport. So the county’s philosophy has always been to try to distribute the operations of the airport, the fees and structures on a broad range of users, so it is not just on one. So it’s being shared by those who are using the airport. Parking is one of those components that we have and operating an electronic system is less staff intensive and normally, when it’s working fine, (it’s) more efficient…and collections are stronger. That’s an important part and fits with what the CARES funding is, so that will be part of the maintenance project that we’ll do.”

Assuming the county’s submittals are approved by the FAA, the county anticipates spending between $9 million and $11 million of the $18 million in CARES funding on operations and maintenance expenditures.

“That’s our estimate on it and ultimately FAA approvals and (the) state aeronautics (department) is part of the process,” Erbisch said. “Ultimately, we have to submit to them our invoices for these expenses for their review and approval, so that is our estimate in that range … it could fluctuate up or down.”

The county will then have to write a capital improvement plan for the FAA to sign off on for the remainder of the grant funding, Erbisch said.

“We have projects that have not been approved yet that hopefully will help build some long-term stability for the airport,” he said. “That might be terminal related, it might be current tenant-related projects that we need to work through. Some of those things may be in the maintenance side of things that we will discuss with the FAA, who has been partnering with us on this process very nicely.”

He said the CARES funds are especially important given that the coronavirus crisis brought the airline transportation industry to what he calls a “screeching halt,” slowing down much of the revenue that the airport normally collects from a variety of sources, including passenger fees and tenant rents.

“Obviously, we are not generating the same amount of passengers in and out of here, so the number of flights have decreased. And so those flights, the number of fees that we would collect from inbound flights in passenger facility charges, is way down,” Erbisch said. “Parking, which is a daily fee, is down substantially. Annually, those are significant. But those are the things we have seen revenue reductions on. When you were running at an 80% capacity in the planes — or higher, which with a 50- or 60-seat jet, that’s pretty high — then you are down to just a handful of people per flight. It’s a real shock to the system, for us and to the airline industry. So it’s a broad hit, you know. But definitely, revenue lost is fuel flowage fees, park(ing) fees, passenger facility charges, which help pay for our matching grants under the federal grants for the projects we do. All those are significantly down, almost at a standstill.”

He said several tenants that rent space at the facility have been granted deferrals by the county board due to the pandemic, which has added to the hardship at the airport.

“We are trying to do the best we can as a county and as an airport to help our businesses that are tenants to be successful and work with them. And we are hopeful that it will work and help them. And at the same time, hopefully we will be able to catch up with those revenues at some point,” Erbisch said.