Utah city gets $17m for new airport

The city of St George in southern Utah has been handed a $17.2 million grant by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to help fund a new airport.

The money will be used to buy up the necessary land for the development, which the local authorities say will include a 9,300-foot runway.

A longer and sturdier landing strip capable of handling 50 or 70-seat regional jets will be a huge improvement on the current facilities at St. George Municipal Airport, which can only take smaller 30-seat turboprops.

In turn, this will improve flying time between St George and its main connection hub in Salt Lake City to the north. Currently, it takes around an hour between the cities' respective airports but with the faster jets, travel time will be almost halved.

In total, it is estimated the new airport will cost around $110 million, with the remainder of the bill being financed by other benefactors, grants, and passenger fees.

It will be built on more than 1,300 acres of land to the south-east of St George and organizers expect to have the hub in operation by 2010.

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