For Immediate Release

ACI-NA Praises Airport Provisions in Final Economic Stimulus Package

Washington, D.C. (Feb. 13, 2009)- Greg Principato, president of Airports Council International- North America (ACI-NA), praised the airport provisions in the final agreement on the Economic Stimulus bill stating, "The stimulus package will allow airports to move forward with much needed infrastructure projects while putting tens of thousands of people across the country to work."  The final bill included the following provisions for airports:

• $1.1 billion in Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funding with a requirement that up to 50 percent of the funds be obligated within 120 days and the rest within a year.  The bill waives the local match requirement, a provision strongly supported by ACI-NA.
• $1 billion to accelerate procurement and installation of baggage screening and checkpoint security equipment at airports.
• A two-year exemption for airport private activity bonds (PABs) from the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) including the refinancing of bonds issued within the past five years under the exemptions.
  

"Airports are an economic gateway for their communities, and today's investment by Congress will benefit them today by providing much need jobs and well into the future by ensuring the airports are ready to meet the evolving needs of the traveling public," Principato noted.

About ACI-NA
Airports Council International - North America represents local, regional and state governing bodies that own and operate commercial airports in the United States and Canada. ACI-NA member airports enplane more than 95 percent of the domestic and virtually all the international airline passenger and cargo traffic in North America.  More than 400 aviation-related businesses are also members of the association, which is the largest of the five worldwide regions of Airports Council International.

CONTACT:
Victoria Houghton, vhoughton@aci-na.org, (202) 861-8080
Eileen Denne, edenne@aci-na.org, (202) 293-4537