Ontario airport gets nearly $4.15M FAA grant for electric ground equipment

Ontario International Airport in Southern California has been awarded $4,147,752 by the Federal Aviation Administration to install charging infrastructure for electric ground support equipment at Terminals 2 and 4, the Ontario International Airport Authority announced August 26, 2026. It is the airport's third Voluntary Airport Low Emissions (VALE) grant in as many years and its largest, covering the federal government's full 75% eligible share of the $5.53 million project.

The chargers will support electric equipment used to service aircraft on the ground, per the release, which credits the airport's two earlier VALE awards with funding ground power units and pre-conditioned air, systems that cut fuel burn by aircraft and ground equipment parked at the terminal. A competitive procurement produced a winning bid the authority describes as significantly below its original project estimate, shrinking the local share needed to finish the work. "Three VALE grants in three years represents meaningful progress," said Atif Elkadi, chief executive officer of the airport authority, in the release.

The award sits in the same vein of targeted federal fleet-electrification money as the EPA Clean School Bus grant behind Boise's eight electric school buses: agency programs paying for chargers and electric equipment one site at a time. Ontario, owned by a joint powers authority of the City of Ontario and San Bernardino County, serves more than 7 million passengers a year, per the release.