The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) identifies significant airports and their roles in the national system as well as identifies funding needs for the public and Congress. This system is used by the FAA to administer the Airport Improvement Program (AIP). The NPIAS supports the FAA goals by identifying specific eligible and justified airport improvements without cost constraints. Projects in the NPIAS include AIP and Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) eligible projects, but only AIP projects are included in the Airports Capital Improvement Plan (ACIP).

The ACIP, a subset of the NPIAS, is an internal plan of airport expenditures for the upcoming 3 years. This plan is financially constrained, more detailed, and projects have a higher degree of certainty. The ACIP aids the FAA in determining the highest priority projects to be funded.

The FAA's Airport Capital Improvement Program (ACIP) is the FAA's primary internal planning tool for identifying, prioritizing, and assigning funds to eligible airports that request Federal assistance. Everything starts with an airport's Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). An Airport's CIP provides the Airports District Office (ADO) with the project details, justification and funding needs/requests. The FAA relies on CIP's from all the NPIAS airports as the basis for the development of the FAA's ACIP. The ACIP contains internal, deliberative funding decisions for anticipated (limited) grant funds under the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and the Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) program.

Each year, projects included in airport's CIP's are evaluated for eligibility, justification and reasonableness. Projects that satisfy all three requirements may be evaluated further and prioritized for funding consideration. Safety improvement projects the highest priority and then the FAA considers other projects and typically considers projects closer to the primary runway centerline a higher priority.

Based on results from internal funding discussions, the ADO's may discuss project eligibility, justification and reasonableness assessments with an airport sponsor and may suggest moving projects to a different year and/or combining projects based on funding availability. Projects that require additional funding beyond available entitlements are analyzed and prioritized 3 years in advance of anticipated funding.

The CIP is the airport's Capital Improvement Plan. The document is created by either the sponsor or the airport's consultant with guidance from the sponsor. This 5- to 6-year plan consists of prioritized projects for planning and development at an airport. Funding plans are broken down on the CIP data sheet for each project.

• An Overall Development Objective (ODO) with detailed cost estimates of the component work item(s).
  • This information can be provide on an ODO Data Sheet, which also contains additional information about the project including project scope, justification, and sketch. The ODO Data Sheet has been developed for use by an airport sponsor, but the form is not mandatory.
  • However, for a project to be considered for AIP grant funds, the information requested must be conveyed in written format to the appropriate FAA Southwest Regional or District office by the airport sponsor.

August/September confirm any planned projects for the upcoming federal fiscal year and your intent to use entitlement funds or advise your ADO if you do not have any planned projects so we can protect (carry over) your airport's entitlement funds for the future.

In September/October submit an update of your airport's CIP along with ODO's (including any sketches, drawings, diagrams and supporting justification that paint the picture). Interim updates to your CIP may be beneficial if projects, timing or funding needs change to ensure your ADO understands your highest priority needs and your financial plan and funding requests.

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Keep your Airport Layout Plan (ALP) current.
Projects included in your airport's CIP should be depicted on the ALP.

Airport sponsors should be aware of both National Deadlines and the following Southwest Region Milestones.

The FAA has developed an online tool accessible from the FAA Airports External Portal (AEP) to make it easier to enter, sign, and submit your nonscheduled enplanement data.

This portal is the preferred method for submitting enplanement data. If you are unable to submit using the portal, you can download the Airport Activity Survey template and follow the included instructions.

See also the AEP Desk Guide (Coming Soon).