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On Wednesday, May 9, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) issued the Order Soliciting Community Grant Proposals (Docket DOT-OST-2012-0069) for the 2012 Small Community Air Service Development Program. The deadline for submitting applications is June 11, 2012. The US DOT has up to $14 million available for fiscal year 2012 grant awards. This is substantially higher than the $6 million originally anticipated.

As expected, this year’s guidelines are very similar to the prior years. One change from the prior year is the US DOT is limiting the length of the application to 25 one-sided pages. This requirement excludes the SF-424, cover sheet, Summary Information, and support letters. The US DOT has also categorized the selection criteria into “Priority Selection Criteria” and “Secondary Selection Criteria.” The priority criteria focuses on airfares, program cost sharing from non-airport sources, and the public-private partnership. The secondary criteria is broader with focus on innovation, participation, location and other factors. The US DOT anticipates announcing grant awards in August. Feel free to give us a call if you need assistance or have questions on the grant process. To all those submitting, best of luck!