The Airport Improvement Program (AIP) provides federal grants to airports for airport development and planning. The airports participating in the AIP range from very large publicly-owned commercial primary airports to small public use general aviation airports that may be privately-owned. AIP funding is usually limited to construction or improvements related to aircraft operations, typically for planning and construction of projects such as runways, taxiways, aprons, noise abatement, land purchase, and safety, emergency or snow removal equipment. This book discusses the Airport Improvement Program within the broader context of airport capital development finance. After a brief history of federal support for airport construction and improvement, the book describes AIP funding, its source of revenues, funding distribution, and the types of projects the program funds.

"ACRP Report 58 provides an overview of policy issues affecting airport administrative and operational decisions and provides airport policy leaders, stakeholders, and policy-related decision makers a common framework to understand administrative and operational necessity, thereby helping them make better informed policy decisions"--Foreword.

Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) aids in making capital investment decisions by determining whether the benefits of a proposed action justify its costs. This synthesis, Effective Practices for Preparing Airport Improvement Program Benefit-Cost Analysis, defines and describes benefit assessment techniques used by airports as well as other modes, highlights best practices, and identifies inconsistencies of how benefits are calculated and where there is confusion in the benefit-cost guidance published by the FAA. The project focused on a review of benefit-cost literature, including benefit-cost analyses submitted to the FAA, and structured interviews with airport managers and other applicants, consultants who prepared BCA studies, and FAA staff. BCA is a tool to aid agencies in project selection and prioritization. At its core, it is a computational tool to determine whether an investment will generate benefits that will exceed its costs. This analysis is accomplished by expressing all current and future benefits and costs on an equivalent basis, which is their present value (PV). A project is economically efficient if it has a positive Net Present Value (calculated as the PV of benefits minus the PV of costs), and hence also a Benefit-Cost Ratio exceeding one.