Applying for COVID-19 airport and ground operations funding
Information on applying for COVID-19 funding support for commercial airports and ground handlers in England.
Applies to England
Who is eligible?
To be eligible for Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme (AGOSS) funding, your company must:
1. Be either a:
- commercial airport situated within England with a valid commercial licence from no later than 27 October 2021 that operated at least 12 scheduled commercial passenger flights in 2019
- ground handling company providing, as your primary function, any of the handling service listed in EU Directive 96/67/EC directly to an airport user for scheduled commercial flights at a commercial airport in England, for a site or sites located in England
2. Have received, for your eligible site or sites in England, a business rates bill from your relevant local authority for the 2021 to 2022 financial year.
3. Demonstrate a forecasted COVID-19 loss for the 6 months to 31 March 2022.
Funding use requirements
The restrictions on the use of these funds is limited to:
- airfield operations of policing or security, air traffic control, fire services costs, as well as costs incurred by law and essential to the operation of an airport
- contracted services including payments to companies, other than airlines, for the legally required and essential provision of airport facilities, services and utilities, including airfield and runway maintenance, as well as services contracted for fulfilment of legally mandated projects, such as security upgrades
- ground handler costs including maintenance of equipment essential to the provision of ground handler activities
- insurance premiums required for the legal operation of an airport
- business rates already paid or billed for the 2021 to 2022 financial year where the applicant will make a declaration that these funds will be used to fully offset those business rates liabilities
How to apply
The funding competition has closed and applications are no longer being taken.
The AGOSS competition ran 3 times between January 2021 and January 2022.
Background to the scheme
The AGOSS has been set up to support commercial airports and ground handlers in England in recognition of their fixed costs and the impacts of COVID-19 on their revenue.
This is the third AGOSS scheme, previous schemes were completed in June 2021 and February 2021.
Updates to this page
Published 29 January 2021Last updated 18 January 2022 + show all updates
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Application deadline extended to 25 January 2022.
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Third competition announced.
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Release of the May 2021 competition.
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First published.