Gulf Shores International Airport in recent months has received more than $1 million in federal grants this year as officials continue to work toward having more commercial passenger service. Throw in the funding for the air traffic control tower and the authority has received more than $7 million in federal funds.

The latest is $500,000 from a $16 million program set up by the U.S. Department of Transportation to be used to recruit airlines to provide service to the resort town.

“This is a special fund set up by USDOT for small communities to use to establish or enhance current air service,” Airport Authority Manager Scott Fuller said. “Goes to airlines as subsidies, or marketing, or to reimburse airport for incentives given to airlines for new service, strictly for airline use.”

According to the grant requirements sent to eligible airports around the country the money can be used for:

• An air carrier to subsidize service to and from an underserved airport for a period not to exceed three years;

• An underserved airport to obtain service to and from the underserved airport;

• An underserved airport to implement such other measures to improve air service both in terms of the cost of such service to consumers and the availability of such service, including improving air service through marketing and promotion of air service and enhanced utilization of airport facilities.

This comes on the heels of another $800,000 grant from Federal Aviation Administration announced in June to develop a plan for getting a temporary terminal to use while a permanent facility is built. The entire cost of the project is $894,194 with the Airport Authority and the Alabama Department of Transportation contributing $44,709 each.

“The terminal was the last obstacle to getting our near service here, we have everything else, we qualify for everything so what we have is we have a private company coming in that will operate, develop and manage that facility,” said Fuller.”

Fuller said the goal is to have the temporary terminal operational by March 1.

If you combine the recent half million and the $800,000 with the $6.1 million air traffic control tower the airport’s grant total for developing the airport is at about $7.4 million.

Originally, the $5.3 million tower project was to be funded by a 90-10 split with the FAA putting up the larger amount and the authority’s match would have been about $700,000. The authority then received a grant from the COVID Cares Act which covered its matching money on the project.