Small Community Air Service Development Program | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) is a U.S. Department of Transportation grant program run through the Office of Aviation Analysis. It was created by federal law and reauthorized multiple times, with its statutory authority codified at 49 U.S.C. 41743. The basic purpose is straightforward: help smaller communities improve their commercial air service when they have too little service, face unusually high fares, or have other circumstances that make better air connectivity difficult without targeted assistance. DOT provides the support as monetary grants, and the funds are paid out on a reimbursable basis, meaning recipients generally incur eligible costs first and then request reimbursement under the grant terms.

For the FY 2015 funding round described in this notice (Funding Opportunity Number DOT OST 2015 0126), DOT made up to $5.5 million available in total. The opportunity is discretionary and uses a grant funding instrument, with an anticipated 40 awards. There is no required cost share or matching requirement listed. The program does not set a fixed maximum per project in the usual way; instead, it notes that individual award amounts vary based on the strength and design of proposals. Historically, awards have ranged from about $20,000 up to nearly $1.6 million, which signals that projects can be relatively small (for example, a focused marketing effort) or more ambitious (for example, a broader service development initiative), depending on what the application proposes and what DOT selects for funding.

Eligibility is limited to small communities that meet specific statutory criteria. First, as of calendar year 1997, the airport serving the community could not have been larger than a small hub, and the community must show either insufficient air carrier service or unreasonably high air fares. Second, the airport must present characteristics such as geographic diversity or other unique circumstances that show both the need for assistance and the feasibility of achieving meaningful results with grant support. Communities without existing commercial air service can still apply, which is important because the program is not limited only to places trying to add incremental flights; it can also support efforts aimed at restoring or establishing service. The program also allows applications from a consortium of communities, but a consortium proposal has to function like a true joint project: one shared objective, one coordinated plan, and one entity responsible for making sure that the group objective is actually carried out.

Several structural limits also apply. A community may submit only one application in a given cycle, either on its own or as part of a consortium, which prevents multiple competing proposals from the same place. DOT also caps statewide representation in selections: no more than four communities or consortia from the same state can be selected in any fiscal year. At the national level, no more than 40 communities or consortia total can be selected in a year when funding is appropriated, aligning with the expected award count shown in the notice.

The notice also explains special restrictions for communities that receive subsidized service through the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. EAS communities can apply as long as they meet the core SCASDP eligibility criteria, but what they can fund is narrower. For EAS subsidized communities, SCASDP awards are limited to marketing or promotional projects that support existing or newly subsidized EAS service. The grant cannot be used to support new competing air service, cannot pay to add flights beyond the EAS carrier arrangement, and cannot be used to change the EAS carrier's existing schedule. The intent is to avoid conflicts with the requirements and structure of the EAS program while still allowing communities to strengthen awareness and utilization of the air service they are already receiving through EAS.

For this particular posting, the application window closed on July 22, 2015. Applications had to be submitted through Grants.gov by 5:00 PM EDT on that date. The narrative portion of an application was limited to 20 single-sided pages, with certain items excluded from the page count (specifically the SF-424, the summary information schedule, and support letters from the community or an air carrier). The listing is associated with CFDA number 20.930 (Payments for Small Community Air Service Development). The notice also provides a DOT contact for applicant support, including a phone number and email for a transportation analyst, and points applicants to the SCASDP website for additional program information.

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