JUST IN: Dayton Airport gets $4.1 million in federal COVID relief funds

Apr. 8—Two Dayton airports received federal relief funds, including more than $4.1 million for the Dayton International Airport.

The James M Cox Dayton International received $4,116,832 in federal economic relief, a release from Sen. Rob Portman's office said. The Dayton-Wright Brothers in Miami Twp. received $23,000.

In all, more than $30 million was slated to Ohio airports, via the Airport Coronavirus Relief Program, created within an end-of-year federal spending agreement, Portman's office said.

"The aviation industry's recovery is critical to our nation's economy. During this pandemic, the sharp decline in air travel left the industry in an uncertain economic position," Portman said. "I'm pleased to see this continued support for our airports as they ramp up services to meet the increasing demands of air travel as our country continues on the path to recovery."

Other Ohio airports and the grants they are slated to receive include:

John Glenn Columbus International-$8,619,383

Akron-Canton Regional-$3,038,242

Eugene F Kranz Toledo Express-$1,468,094

Cleveland-Hopkins International-$9,734,529

Rickenbacker International-$2,049,288

Air travel is slowly normalizing. The Transportation Security Administration reported recently that more than 1.5 million people were screened during Easter weekend at airport checkpoints, which is seen as a record in the past year.

Linda Hughes, Dayton International Airport air service administrator, recently said the local airport generally has mirrored national trends. Traffic in the area is still down about 50% compared to the era before the pandemic.

"Things are slowly coming back," Hughes told the Dayton Daily News last month.