The number that matters is your share, not the invoice.
Most airport planning and survey work is AIP-eligible. For small primary, reliever and general-aviation airports, FAA grants cover 90–95% of eligible costs. Your budget conversation is about the remainder.
Illustrative arithmetic on the published federal share — not a quote, and not a determination of eligibility. Which costs are eligible, and whether your field is at 90% or 95%, is confirmed with your FAA Airports District Office. Source: FAA, AIP Overview ↗
How we structure fees
We publish the models rather than a rate card, because the right structure depends on whether you are running one project or maintaining a plan over years.
Fixed fee per deliverable
A defined scope with a defined number — the easiest thing to get through a small airport's budget cycle.
On-call / IDIQ rate schedule
Get us on your on-call list once, then issue task orders without running a new procurement each time.
Annual ALP maintenance
A current ALP is an ongoing obligation, not a one-time project. A small annual scope keeps it current instead of paying to rebuild it later.
ACDBE / DBE participation
TDH is an SBA small business and certified ACDBE/DBE (#41593). On federally assisted work our participation counts toward your goals rather than competing with them.
What drives the number
- How much already exists. An airport with a decent CAD file and recent survey costs far less than one starting from a paper sheet.
- Whether new field capture is needed, and at what accuracy — this is usually the largest single variable.
- Whether the output feeds a formal AGIS submission, which carries its own standards and documentation burden.
- How much of the record has to be reconstructed before anything can be drawn.
This is why we start with a records review rather than a proposal. Scoping before knowing what exists produces a number that is either padded or wrong.