The federal government has announced two new funding programs to help Canada’s airports recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Airport Critical Infrastructure Program (ACIP) will provide close to $490 million to help Canada’s larger airports with investments in critical infrastructure-related to safety, security or connectivity. Meanwhile, the Airport Relief Fund (ARF) will provide nearly $65 million to targeted airports to help maintain operations.

The government also announced that it has bumped up funding for its Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) by $186 million over two years. The ACAP provides financial assistance to local and regional airports for safety-related infrastructure projects and equipment purchases.

The funding announcements and the ACAP top up were originally announced in the federal government’s November 2020 Fall Economic Statement.

“Canada’s airports are major contributors to our country’s economy, and play a key role in sustaining the social and economic well-being of our communities, and our local airport workers,” said Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra. “These programs will help ensure that, as Canada works towards recovery and travel restart post pandemic, our airports remain viable and continue to provide Canadians with safe, reliable and efficient travel options, while creating and maintaining good paying jobs in the airport sector.”

The ACIP will distribute $489.6 million in funding over five years to airports for eligible projects such as runway repairs/rehabilitation, airfield lighting enhancements, investments in terminal buildings, and transit stations to ensure connectivity to mass transit systems. Program funding is available to owners and operators of airports with annual passenger volumes greater than 525,000.

For example, in April 2021, the federal government used the program to announce a contribution of up to $100 million towards the $600-million project to construct a new Réseau express métropolitain light rail underground station at the Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.

The Airport Relief Fund, meanwhile, will provide $64.8 million in funding to airports with 2019 revenues of less than $250 million. Available funding will be scaled based on 2019 revenues. Those Ontario airports eligible for funding under the program include Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport, London International Airport, Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, and Thunder Bay International Airport.

Finally, in addition to the funding top-up of $186 million, eligibility for ACAP has been temporarily expanded to allow National Airport System airports with less than one million annual passengers in 2019 (specifically, airports in Gander, Charlottetown, Saint John, Fredericton, Moncton, Thunder Bay, London and Prince George) to apply for funding under the Program in 2021–2022 and 2022–2023.

The program funds projects under existing eligibility criteria based on three priority levels, including safety-related airside projects, heavy airside mobile equipment, and air terminal building and groundside projects.

For 2021–2022, funding has already been awarded to 63 airports for 86 ACAP projects, and the federal government has committed to funding at least half of the cost of each.