Airport Authority Would Restructure TCRA Ownership

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – Forming an airport authority would change how ownership of the Tri-Cities Regional Airport is structured but not who owns it.
Airport executives drove home the point during a Thursday evening meeting with about 50 representatives from the airport’s six municipal owners at Northeast State Technical Community College’s auditorium.
“This is not a situation where you as owners are transferring your control over the airport,” said Bill Bovender, the airport’s legal counsel. “Instead of owning it in one form, you are owning it in another.”
Six local governments – Bristol, Va., Bristol, Tenn., Johnson City, Tenn., Kinsport, Tenn., Sullivan County, Tenn., and Washington County, Tenn. – have owned a share of the airport since 1964.
Each owner appoints members to the Tri-Cities Airport Commission, which oversees operations.
The governments can also be held liable for any judgments awarded in lawsuits against the airport.
Bovender said the liability issue is of a particular concern for Bristol, Va., because it – unlike the airport’s other five owners – is not covered by a Tennessee law capping damages from a tort lawsuit filed against a municipality at $450,000.
The airport’s owners could escape these liability concerns by forming a municipal corporation like an airport authority to shield them from lawsuits.
Under such plan, the airport’s owners would become stockholders or corporate members of the authority. They would maintain control over the airport’s operations by appointing members to the authority’s board of directors.
“We have over the past 10 years discussed the airport authority concept,” Airport Commission Chairman John Teague said, adding the liability issue came to the forefront in 2001 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Airport Executive Director Patrick Wilson said the liability issue has surfaced more recently as airlines request airport staff to take over their baggage claim, passenger boarding and flight direction services.
Each one of the airport’s owners has expressed an interest in forming the authority and Wilson said Thursday’s meeting was held to answer questions about the plan.
He said Airport Commission members will present a formal recommendation in September, based on feedback they receive. The airport’s municipal owners must approve the authority plan before it would go before the Tennessee state legislature for passage as a special private act.
Wilson said he could have this legislation ready as soon as January 2009 and each owner must then ratify the private act before the airport authority would assume operations.

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