A first of five rounds of airport infrastructure funding has been released by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the form of grants totaling $1 billion and intended to support the modernization and maintenance of facilities across the country. 

Grants for terminal expansion and sustainability upgrades were awarded to a group of 85 airports as part of the Biden Administration’s bipartisan infrastructure spending package that will invest a total of $2 trillion into similar upgrades nationwide before the decade’s end. 

“Americans deserve modern airports that meet the needs of their families and growing passenger demand,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. Indeed, the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s most recent 20-year Passenger Forecast indicated that overall air travel numbers are expected to increase to within 111% of the pre-pandemic levels in the next three years, with a total of 11.3 billion domestic passengers expected by the beginning of the 2040s alone.

In keeping with the uptick in demand for air travel, 70 of the grants will be directed towards an expansion of terminal capacity, with Pittsburgh and Orlando’s new terminal and gate constructions totaling some $20 million and $50 million a piece, respectively. Another $35 million will go towards constructing a new zero-carbon energy plant at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as well. 

A total of 47 other grants were allotted to rural airports in disadvantaged areas as part of the push to connect underserved communities to the rest of the country. Two new air-traffic control towers will be built in North Carolina and Illinois, totaling some $30 million of the larger package. An additional 73 grants aimed at accessibility upgrades were included in the first round of funding as well.

An interactive data map detailing all the grant-funded upgrades can be found here.