Tiny Airports Take Off With Stimulus

ProPublica, via NYCAviation.com:

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Tiny Airports Take Off With Stimulus
July 15th, 2009 • By Michael Grabell, ProPublica

The village of Ouzinkie is one of the remotest outposts in the United States — home to a mere 165 people on an island off another island off the coast of Alaska. There are no stores, no gas stations and no stoplights.

Yet the village will soon be home to a new $15 million airport paid for by taxpayers under the federal stimulus package.

Officials say the airport is a critical link for the Alutiiq natives and the descendants of Russian otter hunters who call the village home. Residents depend on a $200 round-trip flight just to go to the grocery store. The only alternative: a 40-minute skiff ride across the sometimes choppy Ouzinkie Narrows to Kodiak.

The Federal Aviation Administration has now allocated all of its $1.1 billion in stimulus money for airport improvements. But the complex set of rules laid out in the recovery act has led to some counterintuitive results.

The biggest winners aren’t the busiest airports. And more than $100 million is going to airports that have fewer than one flight an hour — airports that cater to recreational fliers, corporate jets or remote communities. [Full Article]

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