Tennessee lawmakers moved a step closer Wednesday to replacing the boards that oversee regional and metropolitan airports across the state. An amended version of Senate Bill 2473 advanced from the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee and would vacate existing airport authority boards, replacing them with new panels appointed largely by state officials. The amendment says the governance of regional and metropolitan airports is a matter of statewide concern.
For metropolitan airport authorities, the amendment would create nine-member boards with two appointments each from the speaker of the House, speaker of the Senate and governor, plus three from the executive officer of the creating municipality, subject to local approval.
Commissioners could not have a financial interest in the airport or its concessions and could not be officers or employees of the creating or participating municipality.
The amendment also says appointing authorities “shall strive to ensure that the membership is representative of the geographic and demographic composition” of the state or municipality and that “at least one (1) commissioner is a female.”
The bill also would affect Tennessee’s Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, which oversees Memphis International Airport.
“The Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority (MSCAA) is aware of introduced legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly regarding how airport authorities at commercial service airports in the State are constituted,” the authority said in a statement to local ABC 24. “The MSCAA will always maintain compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws.”
The amendment says the act would take effect immediately for appointing commissioners and on July 1, 2026, for vacating and reconstituting existing airport boards.
