It's a £56m total fund that airlines serving any airports under 5 million pax per year can bid for - the first tranche is for £17.5m. They won't just get it, but will need to put forward a bid showing "net economic benefits for the region", so bucket and spade routes won't get it.
Bear in mind this is tax payers money being used to subsidise (largely) private businesses to generate an economic benefit at a time of recession and a massive budget deficit - the real world is going to come as such a shock...