The Morristown town council recently voted to approve more than $15 million in appropriations to fund capital improvements at Morristown Municipal Airport.
Officials voted unanimously to approve two ordinances totaling approximately $15,165,000 at the town council’s regular meeting on October 27.
The legislation states that federal grants account for 95% of the project’s total funding, which will upgrade the airport’s main runway – 5-23.
The town will allocate $14.4 million from a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program. The New Jersey Department of Transportation and DM Airports LTD will each contribute approximately $377,000 and $380,000, respectively. Both ordinances state that NJ DOT’s contribution may not materialize, which would raise DM’s contribution to 5%.
A September public disclosure from the FAA shows that Morristown Municipal Airport secured $14.2 million through the Airport Improvement Program. Approximately $9 million of the grant was awarded through competitive discretionary funding, while the remainder, $5.2 million, came from the airport’s annual federal entitlement allocation.
In a November 2024 statement, airport management said the project will span five to seven years. It involves extending the runway 5 safety area to support additional runway safety features. Although the project has been in the works since 2005, the last phase, Phase 11, was completed sometime after November 2024.
The FAA also awarded improvement funds to Atlantic City International, Essex County Airport, Ocean City Municipal Airport, and Ocean County Airport in Toms River, but the grant to Morristown Municipal was by far the largest in the state.
The Morristown council approved the grant more than three years after the legislative body approved a $10 million appropriation for the airport. That round of funding, according to a report in NorthJersey.com, provided resources for a new taxiway and runway renovations.
