Virginia's airports would be barred from using state money to support airline operations under new budget language approved by the House of Delegates' Appropriations Committee.
It's the second major General Assembly reform proposal on airport funding to surface since the Daily Press reported that the Peninsula Airport Commission used $3.55 million of state airport funds given to Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport to make good on its 2014 guarantee of a loan to the start-up People Express Airlines.
Last week, the state Senate Transportation Committee rewrote a state Board of Aviation bill to institute a sweeping reform of the way it issues grants to airports in order to tighten state oversight in the wake of the People Express loan. The state Senate approved the measure 40-1 on Monday.
