The airline that wants to connect Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport with the New York area is still keen to come, even though it has postponed a planned March launch, airport executive director Ken Spirito said Thursday.
Elite Airways is waiting for the state to finish a review of the airport’s use of state funds in 2015 to pay off a loan that TowneBank made to People Express Airlines, he told the Peninsula Airport Commission at its regular monthly meeting.
The Daily Press reported last month that the commission paid $4.5 million to make good on People Express’ debt to TowneBank. The commission agreed to guarantee the TowneBank loan in a closed-door meeting. The report prompted Virginia Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne to ask how the airport was able to afford that sum.
After discovering that the commission used $3.55 million of state funds to pay off the loan, Layne cut off state payments to the airport and ordered an audit. He said the payment was the largest unauthorized use of state aviation funds ever. The commission also used $700,000 from a regional body that tries to promote better air service here and that is funded by local governments, prompting Hampton, York County and James City County to put a freeze on their contributions to that body.
Spirito said Thursday that he is in regular contact with Elite Airways president and chief executive officer John Pearsall, with calls at least once a week.
“They are very, very eager to come,” Spirito said. “They’re just waiting for the end of the audit by the state.”
He said the airport is going ahead with plans to buy nearly $400,000 worth of equipment, including a jetway, baggage handling equipment and other items needed for Elite’s on-the-ground operation, which airport-paid staff will handle. That’s a new venture for the airport, which it plans to market to Delta and American airlines, as well as any other new services that come in the future.
Spirito said he did not know when Elite might start service. The key is that the airline wants to be sure attention on its new service isn’t distracted by the airport’s dispute with the state.
Elite spokeswoman Rebecca Ayers declined to comment on the airline’s plans.
Spirito also reported that Atlantic Aviation plans to invest $3.4 million to build a new hangar at the airport, in a big to expand corporate jet service. The new hangar will have nearly 20,000 square feet of space, nearly half the size of a football field. In return, the company would like an extension of its current lease, and Spirito suggested the airport propose adding another 13 years so that the agreement would expire in 2039.
At the meeting, several members of the commission board proposed reforms to the body’s bylaws and what it asks its own auditors to do, in response to state officials’ dismay about the People Express loan payment.
Chairman George Wallace, the former Hampton mayor, said he would like to see the commission’s own outside auditors review its use of state funds in the future.
Commissioner Rob Coleman, a former Newport News councilman, said he is concerned that the commission’s bylaws make it possible for just two of the six commissioners to decide on actions.
“We’re responsible for a lot of money,” he said, arguing for a larger quorum for a vote than the current three.
Coleman said he also would like the commission to invite localities that contribute to the regional body to name representatives to the commission board.
The commission held a shorter-than-usual closed session to consult with its attorney. Under what Spirito said is a new approach, the commission disclosed in unprecedented detail that it was going into closed session to discuss the state audit sparked by the People Express payment, the status of a lawsuit by the airport’s longtime food and beverage provider challenging the termination of its lease, and an application for a Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control license for the food and beverage service the airport has planned to launch.
Daily Press reporter Reema Amin contributed to this report. Ress can be reached by phone at 757-247-4535.
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