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Charlotte City Council Approves New 10.5-Year Airport Lease with Airlines, 8-2 Vote
Charlotte City Council voted 8-2 Monday night to approve a new Airline Use and Lease Agreement for Charlotte Douglas International Airport, keeping American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest and United as signatory airlines through mid-2037 with a five-year extension option. The deal also launches a $2.1 billion capital program called CLT Beyond.
Charlotte City Council voted 8-2 Monday night to approve a new Airline Use and Lease Agreement for Charlotte Douglas International Airport, locking in the airport's five signatory carriers â American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest and United â for 10 and a half years beginning Jan. 1, 2027, with an option for a five-year extension.
Council members JD Mazuera Arias and Reneé Perkins Johnson cast the dissenting votes. More than 50 people signed up to speak at the meeting, with supporters and opponents splitting over the deal.
Backers included representatives from Atrium Health, Novant Health, Trane Technologies, the Charlotte Area Chamber of Commerce, the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance and local business owners, some of whom operate at the airport.
Opponents â many of them workers who told council members they "keep the airport running" â said they felt unseen and unheard and urged the council to delay the vote. Their concerns centered on subcontractor pay, an issue state law bars the city from addressing directly. "We've gotta take this fight to Raleigh," Council member LaWana Mayfield said.
The agreement also kickstarts CLT Beyond, a $2.1 billion capital development project that includes an expansion of Concourse C with new gates and a passenger tunnel connecting those gates to the main terminal. The program is more than four times the roughly $460 million capital plan under the airport's previous lease.
Negotiations over the agreement had been extended this past spring for up to a year before the council vote.
CLT is owned by the city but operates as a financially self-sustaining entity; local income and property taxes do not fund airport projects. City council did not negotiate the terms of the new agreement but was required to approve it.