Changes coming at CLT - Fly Gracefully

Jerry Orr has been in charge of the Charlotte Airport as long as I have lived here. I chose to live in Charlotte due to its airport and quality of life as I have mentioned in other posts. Although I will most likely continue to live here in spite of changes to the airport, they do affect my ability to do my job. There has been a lot of talk of changing Charlotte over to a regional airport authority and removing Jerry Orr from control.

Last night that all was shaken up with Orr losing his position in what some said look like he resigned and others that he was fired.

Thursday’s twists were the latest in a political battle that flared in February when Republican lawmakers caught city officials off guard by introducing legislation to shift the airport to an independent, regional authority.

Proponents of the bill argued that a Democratically controlled city was interfering in the affairs of an airport successfully run by Orr, the longtime aviation director. The city countered that the airport had performed well under city control for nearly eight decades.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/07/18/4172346/last-minute-bid-for-airport-compromise.html#storylink=cpy

What does this all mean? Honestly I need to study this all much more to weigh in with an educated response. I know CLT is currently under many projects including the new Hourly parking/rental car decks and after that is done I believe a new international terminal is to be built where the current rental lots are as well as just continual modernization. I’m sure the projects currently underway will continue as-is, but if a new authority takes over I’m sure they can do as they please for the other projects that are still just powerpoint slides.

I’m a little concerned to hear this is how it went down since I have generally agreed with Orr’s comments in the newspaper over the years and I feel that Charlotte is a pretty well run airport with nice facilities. Now to see how all of this actually plays out.

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