Charlotte Douglas International Airport has become a political football for local and state political leaders in recent weeks.
Anthony Foxx started his day in Raleigh asking the local delegation of state lawmakers to delay action on a bill that would end the city?s control of Charlotte Douglas International Airport. By the end of Wednesday, the Charlotte mayor, a Democrat, stood in the lobby of the Government Center uptown telling reporters the state?s power grab is hasty and unwarranted.
So it goes in the heated debate over the future of the city?s most prized economic asset.
Mecklenburg Republicans Bob Rucho, a state senator, and Bill Brawley, a House member, are leading the charge to create an independent authority to govern the airport. Jerry Orr, the city aviation director, has long advocated for an authority, calling it a more effective way to allow Charlotte Douglas to operate as a business.
US Airways operates its largest hub in Charlotte. Doug Parker, the CEO of the airline, cites Orr?s stewardship, principally the cheap cost to fly in and out of Charlotte Douglas. Rucho, Brawley and some local business executives say city government has encroached on Orr?s management of late. That, they say, could increase expenses and, in turn, threaten the hub just as US Airways merges with American Airlines.
?Both the bill sponsors and our delegation have been listening to what I and some of the council members have been saying about the complexity of the decision that they are making,? Foxx said Wednesday evening. ?They?ve got a substantial amount of power to make this decision unilaterally. We went up today on a bipartisan basis to ask them to inject some reason into this conversation. The first question is, what problem are we trying to solve. I have yet to get a satisfactory answer to that question, but, even if there were a satisfactory answer, the next step would be to launch a study to examine how to solve that problem.?
Erik Spanberg covers government, sports business, hospitality and airlines for the Charlotte Business Journal.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_1/~3/KrzSk6kCLTQ/charlotte-mayor-questions-raleigh-rush.html
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