Capital Region International Airport in Lansing will get more than $10-million dollars in federal funding in response to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Michigan airports are getting $256-million dollars from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Spencer Flynn is Marketing Manager at Lansing’s Capital Region International Airport. He says the money is meant to cover operating expenses, debt payments, and employee pay. “They said ‘don’t take this as an investment type money,' Flynn explains. "'This is money that we want you to use to continue to keep your airport open'.”
Airports getting the money cannot reduce staffing levels by more than 10 percent.
While Lansing is getting $10.3-million dollars, the largest Michigan grant by far, about $142-million, went to Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
Flynn says the airport currently offers two flights daily to and from both Detroit and Chicago. Services to Minneapolis and Washington D.C. are paused. Passenger traffic is down 90 to 95-percent.