Eight months after President Joe Biden signed the infrastructure bill into law, the U.S. government has approved $1 billion for improvements to 85 airports across the country, according to a news release.
"It's going to help make air travel safer, more accessible and more efficient," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on a call with reporters, Forbes reported. "And it's going to create a lot of good jobs in communities of all sizes."
It's usually up to the municipalities and airlines to make the improvements, Buttigieg said.
"But I don't think anybody could look at airports across America today and say that the existing system and the existing levels of funding had been adequate," he said. "America is a country that brought the modern aviation age to the world. And yet, around the world, in most rankings of airport quality, not one of our airports ranks among the top 25. That's something that we have to change."
Forbes reported that 658 applications across 532 airports were received for the funding, which will be doled out over a five-year period.
To qualify, airports had to agree to wait until the next fiscal year to begin their project's construction, the story said.
Seventy grants will be used to expand terminals, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. These include airports in Pittsburgh, Chattanooga and Orlando.
Another 76 grants will be used to make terminals more sustainable by reducing water and electricity consumption.
An additional 47 grants "contain an element that will go to improving airport access to historically disadvantaged populations and rural airports," FAA said.
