New Hanover County Airport Authority

New Hanover County Airport Authority, doing business as Wilmington International Airport, is a local government entity and child of the County of New Hanover that receives federal infrastructure grants from the Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration as a prime recipient, with no federal contract prime or subcontractor footprint. The authority operates exclusively under CFDA 20.106 (Airport Improvement Program), CFDA 20.116 (Airport Improvement Program), CFDA 20.117 (Airport Infrastructure Grants), and selective demand-side grant programs; it does not compete for contracts or sit on government-wide acquisition vehicles.

Wilmington International Airport's federal grant portfolio centers on three concurrent, multi-phase airport infrastructure projects at its Wilmington, North Carolina location. The first is runway rehabilitation of Runway 6/24 — 8,016 linear feet of existing pavement — with phase 2 construction funded by a $5.56 million FAA project grant (September 2025, completion September 2029) and the final phase funded by a $7,005,697.78 grant (August 2026, completion August 2030). The second is terminal access road expansion and extension, comprising multiple phases across three complementary federal grant programs: a $4.097 million FAA Airport Improvement Program formula grant (July 2026), a $4.53 million Airport Infrastructure Grants project grant (July 2026, part of the IIJA allocation), a $4.42 million AIP project grant for site preparation (September 2025, completion September 2029), a $4.27 million AIP utility-construction formula grant (September 2025, completion September 2029), a $12.617 million AIP construction grant for Phase 3 Part 2 (September 2024, completion September 2028), a $4.210 million AIP phase 2 construction grant (September 2024), and a $3.111 million AIP project grant for the fourth phase (September 2024, completion September 2028). The third is terminal and apron expansion, with a $2.111 million AIP project grant (September 2024) funding design for two new gates and 121,800 square feet of terminal building expansion plus 10,000 square yards of east apron expansion.

Secondary grant work includes a $2.581 million AIP formula grant (August 2023) for design of environmental assessment, access-road expansion, and runway rehabilitation; a $1.015 million AIP project grant (June 2023) for a Part 150 Noise Compatibility Plan study; a $600,000 Payments for Small Community Air Service Development grant (September 2022) for minimum revenue guarantee and marketing to establish air service to South Florida; a $6.090 million AIP project grant (January 2022) providing COVID-19 economic relief for airport operations and personnel; a $462,148 AIP project grant (March 2022) for COVID-19 concessions relief; and a $462,148 aircraft rescue and fire-fighting safety equipment grant (June 2022).

Award volume has remained modest and episodic — three awards in 2026, three in 2025, four in 2024 — with the FAA Southern Region dominating the customer base (28 awards across recent fiscal years). The authority's combined potential value across all 144 awards in the source is $8.6 million, but combined obligated dollars total $201.2 million, reflecting substantial multi-year infrastructure commitments with long completion horizons (most projects complete in 2028–2030). The authority functions as a federal infrastructure capital recipient rather than a service provider or vendor and does not engage as a federal contractor or subcontractor.