The Federal Aviation Administration has given $240 million to upgrade airports owned by businesses and that are used exclusively for private airplanes, a USA Today analysis shows.

The money has aided about 50 privately owned airports — many of them little-used — since the mid-1980s, buying items such as runway upgrades, new fences and airplane hangars.

The funding is unusual because most airports that get federal grants are owned by cities or counties. Supporting businesses that own airports raises questions about whether public funds should go toward assisting private enterprise.

"Airports can help areas to some extent, but the people who benefit from grants are developers who own airports," aviation economist Kenneth Button said.

Large companies getting airport grants include energy giant Exelon and Belz Enterprises, a major developer in the South.

The FAA says the privately owned airports it funds benefit the public by providing landing areas for private airplanes that otherwise would congest nearby commercial hubs. The airports "serve an important role in our aviation system," said Catherine Lang, FAA's acting associate administrator for airports.

Lang said the FAA is "considering more stringent policies," though, that could halt funding for about 20 little-used private airports.

Without the cash, most of the airports could not support themselves and would close, officials say.

"This airport would be a parking lot now without the federal funds," said Tom Geles, owner of Buffalo-Lancaster Regional Airport in Upstate New York. The airport averages 28 takeoffs and landings a day, according to a state report published in June, and has received $9 million in federal funds.

Under a 1982 law, privately owned airfields can get federal money if the FAA declares them "high-capacity airports" that ease congestion at nearby commercial hubs by handling corporate jets and recreational planes. Lawmakers worried that private airplanes would cause delays at commercial airports.

But as commercial traffic has declined, some see privately owned airports as excessive.

David Bottar of the Central New York Regional Planning Board urged the FAA in 2004 not to give money to two developers trying to revive a dormant airport near uncongested Syracuse-Hancock International and Oswego County Airport. "It's not a wise use of public resources to develop a small airport near these two others," Bottar said in an interview.

After giving David Pizio and Kenneth Coon $2.6 million for their Syracuse Suburban Airport, the FAA now says it may halt funding because the airport "has not grown as the FAA projected it would."

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Thomas Frank reports for USA Today.