Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Pullman, Washington, has announced gifts totaling $2 million to Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport for a runway expansion project.

Gifts of $1 million each from SEL and SEL founder Ed Schweitzer and his wife, Beatriz, will provide a quarter of the local matching funds required by the FAA to greenlight the Pullman-Moscow Airport Runway Realignment Expansion Project. The five-year expansion project will enable the airport to meet the industry's evolving safety standards, add capacity for more flights and potential destinations out of Pullman-Moscow, and reduce the number of weather-related flight cancellations. Construction, which is set to begin in early 2016 and wrap up in 2019, is expected to create two hundred jobs in Washington and Idaho and generate more than $25 million in wages and spending.

"The Schweitzer and SEL donations put us over the top for the local match," said Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport executive director Tony Bean. "These gifts will help us give the region a competitive advantage for maintaining the quality of life enjoyed on the Palouse as well as attracting and retaining companies, jobs, students, faculty, and families."