In Good Company

The storied FAA Airport Improvement Program turns 40 this month. In addition, overall federal grants-in-aid programs are 75 years old. That is a real achievement, and something that has made a lasting impact on the U.S. airport system. For more about what these programs mean, and how they evolved, click here.

The name Airport Improvement is universally recognized in our industry. Airports big and small know AIP and associate it with valuable resources that help our collective infrastructure grow with the changing times.

When launching this publication in 2008, we wanted a name that already had universal recognition and conveyed a sense of growth and strength. We had a list of options to consider, but none matched what we wanted our publication to represent better than Airport Improvement, literally and figuratively. And so it was that Airport Improvement magazine was launched. To this day, we have never regretted our decision. In this month of May 2021, with the Airport Improvement Program celebrating its 40th anniversary, we thank Congress and FAA for AIP—for all the help it provides to airports and for providing the inspiration for the name of our magazine.

We also celebrate the beginning of a post-pandemic travel rebound, and look forward to seeing many of you at industry events that are slowly starting to be held in person.

I feel grateful for how we have endured, sustained and even improved over the past 14 months during the pandemic. Thank goodness for help from long-running programs like AIP!

Cheers!