DBIA To Use CARES Act Funds To Help Airport Tenants

Daytona Beach, FL – Volusia County Council members gave their approval today to Daytona Beach International Airport Director Karen Feaster’s plans to allocate CARES Act funds. The airport was awarded more than $21 million by the Federal Aviation Administration to "keep airportsin reliable, safe operation to serve the aviation industry, the traveling public, and support theeconomy" and "to keep airport and aviation workers employed". Feaster told Council that numbers are rebounding at the airport and pointed to the fact that American Airlines is adding two new routes, one to Philadelphia and another to Dallas-Fort Worth. The package to help the airlines costs about $1 million. The package starts with waiving landing fees for fiscal year 2021. "We want to recommend waiving the common use fees for fiscal year ’21. And then for rent, the first quarter of ’21, waive it at 100 percent, then drop to 50 percent for the second quarter and 25 percent for the third." Council At-Large Representative Ben Johnson said helping out the airport partners is a "no-brainer."  "These have been long term partners and we need to keep them otherwise, what happens is, we’re going to lose them out of the airport, it’s going to be an empty shell. We cannot take care of our passengers and guests coming through the airport if we don’t do something about this." VCC gave its approval to spend about $1.7 million of DBIA’s CARES Act funds on passenger-reliant tenants.