Barring a court ruling, in eight days the Chattanooga Airport board of directors will be dissolved and a new one formed that will offer state officials more authority over the airport than local ones.
In turn, the board rightly has sued top state officials, including Gov. Bill Lee, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, to be shed of the law that that was passed during the regular session of the Tennessee General Assembly earlier this year.
The complaint, filed in Hamilton County Chancery Court Thursday, says the legislation “effectively guts and wrests the governance and control” of the municipal boards that were created to run the airports in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Tri-Cities and Chattanooga, and removes the boards’ control over the airport real estate and assets “for no just reason or cause, without any rational basis and when the public welfare did not require — or even benefit — from it.”
Indeed, in Chattanooga, it might be said the airport is at its best position ever, having surpassed its record for passengers in 2025 and on track to set a new mark in 2026. Further, it has added new nonstop flights to Houston, Newark and Denver and is in the process of adding a second parking deck to accommodate the added airport traffic.
What could possibly be improved by removing the local board that helped facilitate the airport’s comeback from its COVID reverses and replacing it with people appointed by the state who likely would have less insight into the whys and wherefores of the local campus?