BRADENTON, Fla. - The North Carolina House gave final approval to a bill designed to clarify the new governance structure for Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
House lawmakers voted 75-to-42 on June 17 to approve amendments made to the bill by the Senate a week earlier. The legislation does not require the governor's signature.
The bill, titled "Charlotte Airport Commission Clarifications," is designed to settle an ongoing dispute with the city over who runs the airport.
Lawmakers passed a bill last year turning operations over to a regional commission. Charlotte blocked implementation of the bill by filing a lawsuit.
The clarifying legislation specifies that the commission will operate Charlotte Douglas as an agency of the city, not a special district. Charlotte would still own the airport, and issue debt for it.
The legislation is also aimed at answering questions raised by the Federal Aviation Administration in the city's pending lawsuit over Charlotte Douglas' operating certificate.
The FAA said it could not determine who would operate the airport under the law as originally written.
"The proponents of the bill say that it merely clarifies the intent of last year's legislation," Charlotte Mayor Dan Clodfelter said in a statement. "At this point the city's legal team is still assessing whether the bill clarifies anything or whether it instead introduces new legal issues.
"In any event, this new legislation is not the end of the matter and does not address our concerns," he said. "We will continue to reach out to state officials to seek a mutually acceptable resolution of the dispute."
Rating agency analysts have not expressed concern about the governance issue, and have said that they rate airports run by elected and appointed entities.
Charlotte has issued $838.2 million of revenue bonds for the airport, which is the eighth-busiest in the U.S. in passengers. The senior-lien bonds are rated A-plus by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's, and Aa3 by Moody's Investors Service.
