What Are Grant Assurances?
When an airport sponsor — typically a city, county, or airport authority — accepts a grant under the Airport Improvement Program, it signs a set of assurances codified under 49 U.S.C. § 47107. There are 39 of them in total, and they cover a wide range of obligations related to operations, financial management, access, and maintenance.
These assurances are not limited to the duration of the grant. They remain in effect for the useful life of the improvements funded by the grant, which is typically 20 years for land, buildings, and infrastructure. For some obligations — particularly the requirement to keep the airport open for public use — the commitment can extend indefinitely as long as the airport is operated as such.
The FAA's primary reference for interpreting and enforcing grant assurances is FAA Order 5190.6, the Airport Compliance Manual. This document provides detailed guidance on each assurance and how the FAA evaluates compliance.
The Grant Assurances That Matter Most
While all 39 assurances are legally binding, a subset of them creates the most day-to-day impact for small airport managers. These are the ones that most commonly trigger compliance issues, FAA inquiries, and Part 16 complaints.
Grant Assurance 19 — Operations and Maintenance
This assurance requires the airport sponsor to operate and maintain the airport in a safe and serviceable condition and to not permit any activity that would interfere with its use for airport purposes. It is broad in scope and applies to everything from pavement condition to lighting to wildlife management.
For practical purposes, this means you must keep the runway, taxiways, and aprons in usable condition; maintain airfield lighting, signage, and marking; address hazards promptly; and issue NOTAMs when conditions affect usability. The FAA does not prescribe a specific maintenance schedule for non-Part 139 airports, but it expects you to exercise reasonable care and document what you do.
Documenting your maintenance activities is just as important as performing them. If a safety incident occurs on your field, the first thing investigators and attorneys will ask for is your maintenance records. A structured system that logs every inspection, work order, and corrective action creates the audit trail you need. Hangarly's maintenance tracking is built for exactly this purpose.
Grant Assurance 22 — Economic Nondiscrimination
This assurance prohibits the airport from granting an exclusive right to any person or entity to conduct aeronautical activities on the airport. It also requires that the airport be made available on reasonable terms and without unjust discrimination.
The exclusive rights issue is one of the most common sources of Part 16 complaints at small airports. It can arise in obvious ways — such as a lease that explicitly gives one FBO the sole right to sell fuel — and in less obvious ways that are equally problematic:
- Having only one FBO and refusing to consider applications from additional operators
- Setting minimum standards so restrictive that only the incumbent tenant can meet them
- Allowing one tenant to control access to essential infrastructure such as the fuel farm, ramp, or hangar space in a way that excludes competitors
- Entering into agreements that give one party veto authority over new entrants
The fact that your airport may only be large enough to support one FBO does not automatically create an exclusive rights violation. A de facto sole provider is permissible — the issue arises when the airport sponsor takes deliberate action to exclude competition or fails to accommodate reasonable requests for access.
Grant Assurance 24 — Fee and Rental Structure
This assurance requires that the airport maintain a fee and rental structure that makes the airport as self-sustaining as possible. In practical terms, this means your lease rates, fuel flowage fees, landing fees, and other charges should reflect fair market value and generate enough revenue to cover the airport's operating and maintenance costs, with a reasonable contribution toward capital reserves.
Setting rates well below market value — whether to retain a favorite tenant or because rates have not been adjusted in years — can be a compliance concern. The FAA expects airport sponsors to conduct periodic market rate analyses and adjust lease rates accordingly.
Grant Assurance 25 — Airport Revenue
This is the revenue diversion prohibition, and it is one of the most consequential obligations for airports sponsored by local governments. All revenue generated by the airport — including lease payments, fuel sales, landing fees, and interest earned on airport accounts — must be used exclusively for the capital or operating costs of the airport, the local airport system, or other local facilities directly and substantially related to air transportation.
Transferring airport revenue to a city or county general fund is a violation of Grant Assurance 25. This includes indirect diversions such as charging the airport above-market rates for services provided by the sponsor (administrative overhead, public works labor, utilities) or using airport land for non-aeronautical purposes without fair market value compensation. Revenue diversion findings can result in the withholding of all current and future AIP grants.
Grant Assurance 5 — Preserving Rights and Powers
The airport sponsor must not take any action that would deprive it of the ability to fulfill its grant assurance obligations. A common way this becomes an issue is when a sponsor enters into a long-term management agreement or lease that transfers so much control to a private party that the sponsor can no longer ensure compliance.
How Long Do Grant Assurances Last?
The duration depends on the type of project funded:
| Project Type | Assurance Duration |
|---|---|
| Land acquisition | As long as the land is needed for airport purposes (potentially indefinite) |
| Airport development (runways, taxiways, buildings, hangars) | 20 years from the date of grant acceptance, or the useful life of the improvement, whichever is greater |
| Airport planning | 20 years from the date of grant acceptance |
| Noise compatibility programs | As specified in the grant agreement |
Because most active airports have accepted multiple grants over many years, the practical reality is that grant assurance obligations are continuous. The clock resets with each new grant, so a 20-year obligation accepted in 2005 may be followed by another accepted in 2015, and another in 2025 — resulting in uninterrupted coverage stretching decades into the future.
Enforcement: The Part 16 Process
When someone believes an airport is violating its grant assurances, the primary mechanism for filing a complaint is 14 CFR Part 16, which establishes procedures for handling complaints about airport compliance with federal obligations.
Part 16 complaints can be filed by anyone — tenants, prospective tenants, aeronautical service providers, or members of the public. Common triggers include allegations of exclusive rights violations, unjust discrimination in the application of minimum standards, revenue diversion, and failure to maintain the airport in safe condition.
The process typically proceeds through informal resolution first, with the FAA's Office of Airport Compliance encouraging the parties to negotiate a solution. If informal efforts fail, the complaint moves to a formal adjudication process with the FAA's Associate Administrator for Airports making a determination. Penalties can include withholding current grant funds, declaring the airport ineligible for future grants, and requiring corrective action.
The best defense against a Part 16 complaint is proactive compliance. Document your decision-making process for lease awards, minimum standards applications, and fee-setting. Maintain records showing fair, consistent treatment of all tenants and applicants. When your practices are well-documented and defensible, complaints are much easier to resolve quickly.
Building a Compliance Framework
You do not need a dedicated compliance officer or a legal team to stay on the right side of your grant assurances. What you need is a systematic approach to the areas that matter most:
- Know what you have signed. Pull your grant history from the FAA's Delphi system or contact your FAA Regional Airports Division. Understand which assurances are active and when they expire.
- Track your revenue. All airport-generated revenue should flow into a dedicated airport fund, not a general government account. If your sponsor provides services to the airport, those charges should be documented and at market rates.
- Review your leases. Ensure lease rates reflect fair market value, include appropriate insurance and maintenance requirements, and do not create exclusive rights for any tenant. (Chapter 4 covers lease administration in detail.)
- Document your maintenance. Keep a log of inspections, work orders, and corrective actions. This is your evidence of compliance with Grant Assurance 19. (Chapter 3 covers self-inspection programs.)
- Apply minimum standards consistently. If you have minimum standards, apply them the same way to every applicant. If you do not have them, consider developing them — they are your best tool for fair, defensible management of commercial activity on your field.
The next chapter covers airfield safety and self-inspection — the operational practices that keep your airport safe and demonstrate compliance with your maintenance obligations under Grant Assurance 19.