Air travelers are returning to airports, but there is still lower traffic volume, high debt, and new costs from the pandemic, writes Allison Sider and Krystal Hur for The Wall Street Journal.

To help U.S, airports get back on their feet, the federal government is releasing $8 billion in grants of recovery aid from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The grants are part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package approved last March.

The funds can cover operation costs or pay debt service or for expenses related to containing the coronavirus. Some money will be used to cover rent payments for concession operators.

A condition of receiving the recovery aid money is that airports must keep 90 percent of its employees.

Passenger volumes remain about 25 percent lower than pre-pandemic highs, and business travelers have not returned en masse.

Philadelphia International Airport served 33 million passengers in 2019.

That dropped to 11.9 million in 2020. Between 2020 and 2022, the airport expects to lose almost $500 million.  

“When I say that (the funding) was everything to us, it was everything to us. To people, and to businesses, and to this community,”  said Chellie Cameron, the airport’s chief executive.

Read more in The Wall Street Journal about recovery aid to airports.