Last month, the City of Charlotte announced a one-year extension to the renewal of the Airline Use and Lease Agreement with American Airlines and five other carriers operating at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The agreement governs how an asset that supports $40 billion in annual economic output across North Carolina will be operated and improved over the next decade. It deserves the public’s full attention and a fair-minded debate. So far, neither has been on offer.
Recent advocacy from labor groups has drawn sweeping conclusions about Charlotte Douglas International Airport from narrow slices of data, painting American Airlines’ 90 percent share of passenger traffic as evidence of pricing abuse and labor exploitation.
The grievances themselves are not without merit. Wages for subcontracted cabin cleaners, wheelchair attendants, and other vendor employees deserve careful consideration, and the city’s response that the lease agreement cannot legally govern subcontractor pay is a real constraint, not a brush-off…