Sec. 14. (a) The department shall encourage the development of public use airports (as defined in 49 U.S.C. § 47102).

     (b) The department shall encourage the utilization and preservation of necessary airport facilities that are included in the National Airport and Airways System Plan and the state airports system plan and that:

(1) have been developed and maintained by private enterprise;

(2) meet the requirements of section 10 of this chapter concerning certification of airports; and

(3) have been established and are used by the public as a municipal purpose airport as described under IC 6-1.1-10-15.

     (c) The department may participate and cooperate with the Federal Aviation Agency and with the sponsor (as defined in IC 8-21-8-1) and owner of a public use airport (as defined in 49 U.S.C. § 47102) by using airport development funds administered by the department.

     (d) The sponsor of any approved airport development project must:

(1) provide the sponsor’s share of funds for the project; and

(2) meet any other requirements for participation and operation of the airport.

     (e) IC 8-21-8-1 applies to this section.

As added by P.L.128-1987, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.1-1999, SEC.21.