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Aeronautical Valuation Advisory
Valuation Takes Flight · Research

Where federal dollars are building hangars.

Federal airport grant awards are public record. Read against the hangar and apron line items, they show where new hangar capacity is actually being funded, and it is not where most people assume.

$28.4BTotal AIP grants
$289MHangar and apron directed
337Airports funded
5Fiscal years
The finding

The money is going to regional fields, not the hubs

Over the most recent five years, roughly $28.4 billion in federal Airport Improvement Program grants flowed to airports nationwide. Of that total, about $289 million went specifically to hangar, apron, and related general aviation projects across 337 airports.

The pattern is instructive. The largest hangar investments are not at the major airline hubs, which spend their federal dollars on runways and terminals, but at regional and small general aviation fields. That is precisely the market where new hangar capacity translates most directly into leasehold value. The airports below received the most hangar-directed federal funding in the current window.

TVFThief River Falls Rgnl, MN$7.5M
SAWMarquette / Sawyer Rgnl, MI$7.4M
CWACentral Wisconsin, WI$6.1M
DLHDuluth Intl, MN$5.4M
OAJAlbert J Ellis, NC$5.2M
BMICentral Illinois Rgnl, IL$4.0M
LEXBlue Grass, KY$3.8M
STCSt Cloud Sky Central, MN$3.5M
LEWAuburn / Lewiston Muni, ME$2.8M
PUBPueblo Memorial, CO$2.7M

Hangar and apron directed AIP grants, most recent five fiscal years. Source: FAA Airport Improvement Program grant histories, annual AIP summaries of all grants.

Engagement

Put the data to work on your matter

Valuation Takes Flight provides hangar and airport real estate valuation, litigation support, and expert testimony. For an engagement or a question about the figures above, reach out directly.

Clay Carter
DBA · MBA · MS · CFA · FRM · CAIA · CIPM
Valuation Takes Flight, LLC
Valuationtakesflight@outlook.com

Related data: the GA Hangar Rent Index, the quarterly market-rent benchmark for US general aviation hangar storage.