Page 55 - Planning and Design of Airports

The Natur e of Civil Aviation and Airports 33

the public to use the Internet to avoid extraordinarily high full fares
thereby reducing the overall revenue stream of the airlines. The air
carriers dependent on their traditional “legacy” business models fell
into serious financial distress, and combined with the short-term drop
in air travel demand following the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001, many fell into bankruptcy to emerge under more efficient busi-
ness models years later.
These more efficient business models were based on the emer-
gence of “low-cost carriers” or LCCs, that operate primarily on a
market-based origin to destination route network and price fares rel-
ative to operating costs, rather than solely by passenger demand. The
LCC airline model has been the largest growth segment of the domes-
tic airline industry in the United States.

The Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982
In 1982, Congress enacted the Airport and Airway Improvement Act
(Title V of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, Public
Law 97-248). This act continued to provide funding for airport plan-
ning and development under a single program called the Airport
Improvement Program (AIP). The Act also authorized funding for
noise compatibility planning and implementing noise compatibility
programs contained in the Noise Abatement Act of 1979 (Public Law
96-193). It required that to be eligible for a grant the airport must be
included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS).
The NPIAS, the successor to the National Airport System Plan
(NASP), is prepared by the FAA and published every 2 years and
identifies public use airports considered necessary to provide a safe,
efficient, and integrated system of airports to meet the needs of civil
aviation, national defense, and the postal service.
The Airport and Airway Improvement Act has been amended
several times resulting in significant changes in the provisions of the
act and in the appropriations authorized under the Act. These
amendments are included in the Continuing Appropriations Act of
1982 (Public Law 97-276), the Surface Transportation Assistance Act
(Public Law 97-424), the Airport and Airway Safety and Capacity
Expansion Act of 1987 (Public Law 100-223), the Airway Safety and
Capacity Expansion Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-508), and the Air-
port and Airway Safety, Capacity, Noise Improvement and Intermo-
dal Transportation Act of 1992 (102nd Congress H.R. 6168).
This legislation, as amended, significantly increased the level of
federal funding for airports to an aggregate total of more than
$14 billion for the period from 1982 through 1992.

The Aviation Safety and Capacity Act of 1990
In response to issues concerning the provision of limited AIP funds to
the largest airports, thereby leaving the smaller airports with little in